Liberal Arts Education in East Asia Societies: A Case Study of Three Universities in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan

• In Event: Spotlighting the diversity of curriculum development and implementation practices

Proposal

Liberal arts education (LAE) originated from the idea of the examined life and reflective citizenship proposed by Socrates and Aristotle in Greco-Roman philosophy (Nussbaum, 1998). In modern society, LAE has been well developed in the liberal arts colleges of the United States and often regarded as a distinctive feature of American higher education (Godwin & Altbach, 2016). In the early 20th century, LAE had been brought to East Asia through the founding of Christian universities in China by North American missionaries (Lutz, 1971). These Christian universities followed an American liberal arts model which was adapted to the local context and Confucian tradition in the first half of the 20th century (Hayhoe & Lu, 2010; Mou, 2018). However, in the 1950s, as mainland China adopted a Soviet model of narrow professional specialization in their higher education system, the Christian universities were closed down and their programs were divided and merged into public universities (Hayhoe, 1999). After the higher education reorganization, three normal universities focusing on humanities and teacher training inherited the campuses and some of the faculty of former liberal arts Christian universities in mainland China (Hayhoe & Lu, 2010). In 1955, the funding agency of the former Christian universities established Tunghai University to carry on the liberal arts tradition in Taiwan (Tunghai University, 2018). Later, in the 1960s, faculty members and graduates from a former Christian university – Lingnan University in Guangzhou - restored Lingnan in Hong Kong (Lingnan University, 2019). To explore the liberal arts curriculum in current East Asian societies, this study will explore how LAE is being fostered in Greater China currently and contributes to cultivating students as whole persons in a conscious effort to resist the trend of utilitarianism and the narrow focus on research in many universities in East Asia (Mok, 2016). Specifically, I will do a case study of three universities with a LAE tradition from three contexts, Central China Normal University in mainland China, Lingnan University in Hong Kong, and Tunghai University in Taiwan.

Many scholars have studied the challenges of LAE implementation in comprehensive research universities in the three contexts in East Asian societies (Chai, 2016; Huang, 2016; Jiang, 2014; Kirby, 2017; Postiglione, 2016; Shi & Lu, 2016; Yang, 2016). For example, by examining the LAE curriculum in three comprehensive universities in Shanghai, Jiang (2014) found that the core values of LAE do not correspond well with the ideology of the Communist Party embedded in the LAE core curriculum. In Hong Kong, a practically and professionally oriented society, the LAE curriculum is criticized by students as being too theoretical (Chai, 2016). In Taiwan, Huang (2016) examined the LAE curriculum in National Taiwan University and found that only a limited number of LAE courses are offered and there are strong influence of pragmatism and utilitarianism in academic culture. Therefore, to reach the ultimate goal of LAE, there is still a long way to go in the three societies where short-term economic return is valued more highly than whole person development over the long-term. Also, there has been very little research on the universities that are carrying forward the liberal arts tradition from former Christian universities. Although Mok (2017; 2016) studied the LAE model of Lingnan with its fit-for purpose education by meeting both local and global needs, his research was more on the mission statement and policy planning. Boyle (2019) suggested that theoretically informed empirical investigation of LAE implementation in different social contexts in the 21st century would thus be valuable as a next step of research. This study will fill this gap with case studies of three universities with a strong liberal arts tradition. It will examine how LAE could be adapted into different societies in East Asia with a shared tradition of Confucianism and contribute to whole person cultivation (Jiang, 2014; Marginson, 2011; Yang, 2016).

This research will utilize ideal types as a theoretical tool for analysis (Hayhoe, 2007; Holmes, 1981). Ideal type is used to compare aims, hopes, and expectations of different societies and examine the relationship between expressed belief and the complex reality. Using ideal types should make possible the synthesis of core cases of LAE in different societies, clarifying both what they have in common and how they differ. Under this value-explicit framework (Hayhoe, 2007), I will examine how LAE models contribute to the nurturing of a whole person or ideal citizen in each society under the shared tradition of Confucianism (Marginson, 2011; Yang, 2016). It will take into account the context of the different historical influences on each education system, Soviet influences in mainland China (Hayhoe, 2001), British influences in Hong Kong (Chai, 2016), and American influences in Taiwan (Altbach, 1989). Specifically, I will examine how the whole person perspective on education from Confucianism (De Bary, 2014; Tu, 1993), Christian whole person perspectives (Ng, Kwan, & Ip, 2017), and a capabilities approach (Nussbaum, 2001; Sen, 1993), are integrated in LAE for all-round person cultivation. I will do a qualitative study that explores how the historical, cultural, and political ideologies influence the mission, goals, and curriculum of LAE in each institution by doing documents analysis.

The study will contribute to the diversification of university models at a time when the global research university dominates all ranking systems. This is particularly significant in the current age of technology advancement and globalization, as university graduates are facing unprecedented changes and challenges in the 21st century. Also, graduates need mental flexibility and emotional balance to flourish in this world full of uncertainties (Harari, 2018). These challenges demand capabilities such as critical thinking and lifelong learning competency, which are the hallmark of liberal arts education (Godwin & Pickus, 2017). Even from the perspective of utilitarianism, these capabilities are essential to face issues such as environmental sustainability, social inequality, and natural disasters around the globe.

Author

• Leping Mou, OISE, University of Toronto