Sacred Ground: Higher Education and the Importance of Place

Authors

  • Jeffery P. Aper Millikin University

Abstract

Abstract: The growing emphasis on cyberspace as a primary locus for the teaching and learning efforts of modern colleges and universities belies larger issues of connection, meaning making, and community necessary to human growth and well-being. College and university campuses can be critical loci of such functions if they are understood as sacred places devoted to ideals of growth, development, community, communication, and especially of freedom of inquiry, expression, and conscience. Though the current pandemic has reinforced reliance on online methods of instruction and interaction, the critical longer term needs of individuals and society at large are served by a renewal of the commitment to college and university campuses as places dedicated to the essential ideals of respectful polity, comity, and mutuality.

Author Biography

Jeffery P. Aper, Millikin University

Biographical Information: Dr. Jeff Aper is a recently retired chief academic officer and faculty member. He earned a Ph.D. in Educational Research and Evaluation at Virginia Tech University and went on to faculty positions at Southern Illinois University - Carbondale and the University of Tennessee - Knoxville. He later served as Provost at first Blackburn College and then Millikin University, both in Illinois. He has authored over thirty professional publications and has made an equal number of presentations at professional meetings. His primary scholarly interests relate to student outcomes, epistemological issues in educational research, and the ways values shape educational policy and practice.

Downloads

Published

2022-07-07

Issue

Vol. 55 No. 1 (2022): Journal of Educational Thought

Section

Articles

License

The Journal of Educational Thought retains first publication rights for all articles. The Journal grants reproduction rights for noncommercial educational purposes with the provision that full acknowledgement of the work’s source be noted on each copy. The Journal will redirect to the appropriate authors any inquiries for further commercial publication of individual articles. All authors wishing to publish in JET will be asked to fill in and sign a Consent to Publish and Transfer of Copyright agreement.

Authors must affirm that any submission to JET has not been and will not be published or submitted elsewhere while under considration by JET.