AAC&U News | May 2004

Drury University's Core Curriculum Gives Every Student a Global Perspective

Drury University, a small, liberal arts institution in Springfield, Missouri, has developed a uniquely global approach to general education. Unlike many general education programs, which include global learning among their goals but do not offer the coordinated curricula needed to support such learning, Drury's Global Perspectives program fosters writing, critical thinking, and oral communication skills through a series of interdisciplinary global studies courses.

Since its implementation, the Global Perspectives program has revitalized liberal learning at Drury. Because of the core curriculum, every student now graduates with a minor in Global Studies. Roughly half of the students study abroad at some point during their undergraduate career. Faculty have become accustomed to interdisciplinary teaching as a result of the new curriculum. Most importantly, Drury's graduates today are better prepared to become responsible citizens of the world: "Particularly for a small institution in the Ozarks," Charles Taylor, dean of the college, emphasizes, "it [is] important to help students cultivate a broader view." The Global Perspectives curriculum encourages undergraduates to bring that broader view of the world to bear on all of their coursework, and in doing so, it demonstrates that even a small, liberal arts college can integrate global learning into its curriculum.

The Core Curriculum: Preparing Students for a Diverse World

The origins of the current Global Perspectives program can be traced back to the early 1990s, when Drury reevaluated its general education plan and crafted a new mission statement. At that time, Charles Taylor says, faculty and administrators concluded that Drury's existing core curriculum failed to account for "the increasingly global character of knowing as well as of human culture," and that it lacked "a sense of coherence, a developmental dimension." Rather than addressing these problems incrementally, the school spent the next several years completely rewriting its general education plan. Finally, in 1995, Drury launched the new core curriculum--a sequence of required courses that challenge students to think, in increasingly complex ways, about their place in the "global community."

The first requirement of this curriculum is the Alpha Seminar, a two-semester course that frames the freshman year at Drury. The Alpha Seminar focuses on "the American experience" and is organized around four themes: the individual and the community; identity and difference; private interest and public welfare; and the good community. In considering these themes, students focus especially on the roots of American cultural traditions and on the experiences of minorities in the United States. Because the course spans a full academic year, students have ample time to explore and debate the meanings of America. In one recent Alpha Seminar, for instance, students selected a group of twentieth-century Americans who they thought represented "the American Dream"--Muhammad Ali, Al Capone, Walt Disney, Henry Ford, Bruce Lee, and Oprah Winfrey--and then debated what these figures can teach us about American ideals.

In their sophomore year, students take two more courses that provide a framework for later studies--Global Awareness and Cultural Diversity, and Values Inquiry. In the first of these courses, students look beyond the diversity of American culture to consider the diversity of the world's cultures. In the latter course, they learn to reflect critically on their own values systems and to analyze the values of other cultures. Together, these two courses prepare students for the in-depth studies they will pursue at higher levels in classes selected from required categories such as "Minorities and Indigenous Cultures" and "Artifacts of Western Culture."

After the freshman year, Drury undergraduates also take several classes designed to integrate global learning with the study of mathematics and the sciences. In Mathematics and Inquiry, Science and Inquiry, and the Undergraduate Research seminar, they learn how mathematics and science can be practically applied to contemporary problems in such areas as the environment and human health.

The capstone course in the Global Perspectives curriculum, Global Futures, typically is taken in the junior year. Beginning with the concepts of utopia and dystopia, Global Futures asks students both to consider the futures imagined by others and to imagine the real, twenty-first century future in the context of globalization, environmental issues, and political and cultural trends. As Director of Interdisciplinary Studies Richard Schur explains, Global Futures is designed to help students become responsible and engaged citizens: "We develop the broad outlines," he says, "but then we give authority over to the students and say, OK, you're the ones who are going to have to shape this dialogue in the future--it's not just going to be your professors."

Towards the end of the course, multidisciplinary teams of students choose a particular problem--terrorism and Iraq have been popular topics this year--and imagine its possible solutions. By allowing students to apply their knowledge to issues of their choice, Global Futures helps them understand how the core curriculum pertains to present concerns. The experience also prepares students for the culminating work in their major, the Senior Seminar, where they are expected to explore the relationships between their chosen discipline and the Global Perspectives program.

The Benefits of a Global Education

Drury's Global Perspectives program, Dr. Schur says, has transformed the campus environment: "Teaching throughout the university has gotten more interdisciplinary. We've had more team-taught courses, we've had more courses being proposed that drive our registrar crazy because they're involving so many different disciplines. Those are all challenges, logistically--what department gets this or that credit--but it's a wonderful thing to have happen, because you've got faculty across the campus talking to one another and producing knowledge together."

However, Schur also stresses that creating such an open climate requires a tremendous investment of resources. Institutions that adopt interdisciplinary approaches to teaching need to address the concerns of faculty and students alike. Intensive faculty development is essential, he says, and faculty members should be reassured from the start that the tenure review process will not be affected by curricular changes. At the same time, students need to be convinced that global studies are relevant not just to their college education, but also to their intended careers.

Maintaining a strong global studies curriculum also requires continued support and planning. At Drury, faculty and administrators regularly assess the Global Perspectives program, and not surprisingly, they have found that some aspects of student learning still require additional attention. Recent assessment surveys have revealed, among other things, that writing, critical thinking, oral communication, and values analysis skills fail to meet expectations in some areas.

By identifying and discussing these areas, faculty members can continue to improve learning in the core curriculum. As Richard Schur points out, even areas where significant progress has been made--such as the school's study abroad program--can be improved: Although the percentage of Drury students who study abroad has already doubled over the past decade, Schur hopes that study abroad will soon become a core requirement of the program, something every student will experience.

If the number of students studying abroad is any indication of student interest in the diversity of the world's cultures, Global Perspectives has clearly succeeded in its core mission. It also appears to have succeeded in making students aware of the relevance of a liberal education, both to their present lives and to their future professions. Dean Charles Taylor sees this as one of the program's greatest strengths: "Particularly in a day and age when technology and specialization increasingly frame what we do," he says, "it's always important to communicate to students the value of a liberal education."

AAC&U promotes global learning through Shared Futures: Global Learning and Social Responsibility. To learn more about this initiative and the programs it supports, visit the Shared Futures Web page. Visit our resources pages for more information about all AAC&U projects, meetings, and publications related to global learning and general education. Information about Drury University's core curriculum can be found on the school's Global Perspectives Web page.