1st Edition

Preparing Students for Life Beyond College A Meaning-Centered Vision for Holistic Teaching and Learning

    202 Pages
    by Routledge

    202 Pages
    by Routledge

    At a time when STEM research and new technologies are dominating the curricula of colleges and universities, this important book refocuses the conversation on holistic education for all students. Organized around the most important and difficult questions that students face, Preparing Students for Life Beyond College explores a vision of education that will enable students to talk about universal issues openly and honestly, preparing them for life beyond their formal education. Featuring a variety of traditional and innovative pedagogies, strategies, recommendations, and case studies, this practical resource provides student affairs practitioners and higher education faculty in a variety of disciplines with concrete approaches for developing campuses and classes that encourage critical thinking and reflection. This exciting book prepares colleges and universities to help students create meaning in their lives—no matter the discipline, campus location or delivery system.

    Preface

    Part I: The Vision

    Chapter 1: A Meaning-Centered Vision for Holistic Teaching and Learning

    Chapter 2: The Meaning-Quest for Quarterlifers

    Part II: The Meaning-Quests

    Chapter 3: How Do I Realize My Hopes and Dreams?

    Chapter 4: Who Am I Striving To Become As a Moral Person...and Why?

    Chapter 5: Can I Be Both Religious and Spiritual at the Same Time?

    Chapter 6: How Can I Construct Durable, Loving, and Reciprocal Core Relationships? Chapter 7: How Do All My Overlapping Identities Help Me To Define Who I Am?

    Chapter 8: How Can I Prepare for a Successful Career, a Soul-Satisfying Vocation, and a Meaningful Life?

    Chapter 9: How Can I Answer the ‘Call of Service’ To Make the World a Better Place?

    Chapter 10: How Can I Cultivate the Art of Self-Care and Balance in My Life?

    Part III: The Next Steps

    Chapter 11: Meaning-Making Leadership and Interdisciplinarity

    Chapter 12: The Capstone Meaning-Making Seminar: Personal Experiences and Recommendations

    Biography

    Robert J. Nash is Professor and Official University Scholar in the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Creative Arts in the College of Education and Social Services at the University of Vermont.

    Jennifer J. J. Jang 張文馨 is Associate Director of Student Diversity Programs and Adjunct Professor of Mandarin Chinese at Champlain College.

    "Preparing Students for Life Beyond College is a uniquely helpful, wise, and practical guide to engendering meaning-making on campuses.  Containing a fine balance of explication of ideas, reflections from students, faculty, and staff, and pedagogical strategies, this book meets a need in higher education institutions that are too often adrift. The wisdom of this book can lift the sights of those who staff those institutions."

    --Michael D. Waggoner, Professor of Higher Education, University of Northern Iowa and Editor, Religion & Education

    "Nash and Jang integrate wise saws, broad-based scholarship and rich personal experiences to help us address the ‘meaning-making’ challenges facing ‘quarterlifers.’ Their practical suggestions will be useful to experienced teachers as well as to new professionals confronting these age old existential issues."

    --Dr. Arthur W. Chickering, Pitkin Fellow, Goddard College

    "With a passion for reminding the academy that the 'why?' precedes the 'what?', Nash and Jang have generously described their own classroom practice. Within this book you will discover a treasure trove of evocative, artful, tested questions that can be used across disciplines to re-claim the vital work of meaning-making throughout higher education."

    --Sharon Daloz Parks, Author, Big Questions, Worthy Dreams

    "Preparing Students for Life beyond College is a wonderful little book that offers a practical course for those who seek to support, or mentor, their students as they explore the questions that underlie their existence and attempt to create a life of meaning."

    --Emma Farrell, Power and Education Journal