Policy Research in Undergraduate Learning

The educational fallout of the cultural explosion of the 1 960s fell primarily on America's colleges. The Vietnam War, the ecological and urban crises, the civil rights movement, and the re-emergence of feminism all redounded with particular vigor and urgency within the ivy-covered walls. The 1970s have brought the energy crisis and a new political/economic milieu, but there has been slight lessening of the demands that the college curriculum offer relevant treatment of these societal problems which drain our energies and deplete our treasuries. Virtually no academic institution, large or small, public or private, can afford to avoid-or justify avoidingthese demands, though precious few disciplines are oriented toward the direct solution of social problems. Thus, issues courses are often restricted to broad surveys or to experimental forays into the real world. There is, however, an alternative approach to the study of contemporary social issues. At Austin College in Sherman, Texas, we have been experimenting with a program that incorporates both academic standards of traditional courses and the valuable experience of community involvement. Since its methods are largely derived from think tanks and other public and private institutions which apply systematic analytical techniques to ongoing

Academic community · Curriculum · Fell · Feminism · Higher education · Institution · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Social science · Sociology · Evaluation and Performance Assessment · Higher Education Governance and Development · Law · Public Administration · Service-Learning and Community Engagement

• Futures Research, Policy Research, and the Policy Sciences

  Open Access•Richard C Lonsdale•Education and Urban Society•1975

  Add to list