At about this time last year, I argued that one strategy to use to help combat the loud and negative public attitudes toward higher education might be to employ a version of Gerald Graff’s concept of “teaching the conflicts” in general education literature courses. Such a strategy could, I suggested, provide students with an opportunity to reflect on the role of the university in their lives and in culture in a conversation based on texts that considered questions of a university’s value deeply. Participating in a semester-long discussion of literary representations of higher education might give students, I suggested, a greater future ability to interpret and contextualize public discourse about the purpose and effectiveness of US higher education.
