Liberating the curriculum by introducing trans-disciplinary and human values into undergraduate education at the University of Tasmania

This chapter explores the challenges of civilizing education in terms of two initiatives implemented at the University of Tasmania, Australia: breadth units and a unit in philosophy of management. The chapter first discusses Whitehead's concerns regarding civilization as a result of the growth of business and Cobb's concerns regarding the effect of disciplinization on academia. It then considers what sort of education will render the curriculum relevant to the future by moving us beyond the passive acquisition of discipline-specific knowledge and toward a grappling with the central issues of our time. It then considers the importance of value-laden intellectual discussion for civilizing management education, and whether, how, and with what success such an approach can be embedded within the fabric of a "capstone" third-year class. The chapter concludes by arguing that a philosophical questioning mode of inquiry, not a scientific answering one, is central to equipping students for the realities they will face as citizens