Friends, Foes, and Nel Noddings on Liberal Education

Abstract

The author analyzes the debate over liberal education, focusing on critic Nel Noddings, who advocates alternative education. The author cites Noddings' article "Conversation as Moral Education," where Noddings identifies traditional education as studying the canon of Great Books, and another article in which Noddings discusses the theory of curricula. The author argues that her own definition of education uses the ideas of the Greek philosopher Aristotle to define education's aims, moral virtues, and intellectual gains. The author describes Noddings' concern over exclusivity in education, her imagery of philosophical questions being asked by cowboys, old women, and fishermen, and her belief that learning occurs outside the classroom.