On Cluster Courses

On cluster Courses:

This is not exactly what you are asking for, but Trinity University requires all students seeking elementary teacher certification to complete a "Composite Major in the Humanities" (students in secondary education must complete a major in some particular academic discipline). The Composite Major in the Humanities consists of three "clusters" (a) Discovery and Innovation, (b) "City and Modern Life," and (c) "Law and Values." For each cluster, a student must complete nine semester hours from at least two different academic departments. The courses in the clusters come from a wide variety of disciplines i.e.., Anthropology, Art History, Classical Studies, English, History, Modern Languages and Literatures, Music, Philosophy, Political Science, Religion, Sociology, and Speech).
At Mount Saint Mary's, a Catholic liberal arts college, first-year students enroll each term in a "cluster" composed of a course in history and a course in literature or fine arts. For each cluster there are 25 students, two instructors, two courses. Cluster faculty pairs plan the work of each cluster together so that student work in each class complements that in the other: students read Thucydides in history while studying Greek tragedy in lit or fine arts; they study European colonialism in Africa while they read Achebe's Things Fall Apart in lit; and so on. The cluster faculty as a whole meet several times a year to read new texts together, discuss cluster pedagogy, and consider any larger changes in the program.
The cluster is part of a four-year general ed program that moves from Western (Mediterranean/European) experience, to American and Catholic, to non-Western cultures. We are currently talking about other clusters within the program, including those that would bring together philosophy or theology with natural science.
We have found that the cluster work, and the core as a whole, have deepened the interest in and commitment to interdisciplinary collaboration among faculty.
Bill Craft
William Craft
Dean of Undergraduate Studies
Mount Saint Mary's College
Emmitsburg, MD 21727
email: craft@msmary.edu
office phone: 301/447-5333
extension/voice mail: 4005
fax: 301/447-5755