Distinctive Pedagogies that Address the Meaning Crisis in Higher Education

The unique pedagogical practices of microcolleges and living-learning institutes speak to what we identify as the “meaning crisis” in young adults. This paper makes the case for three critical educational conditions that help young people create a durable sense of meaning and purpose across a lifetime: interdependence, work with real stakes, and an integrative relationship to place. We highlight four institutes (Seguinland Institute, Thoreau College, Outer Coast, and Tidelines Institute) that do exemplary work toward these goals, and describe the particular practices, structures, and systems they use to do so. In particular, we discuss self-governance, labor, communal living, and place-specific academics as transformative pedagogical tools. How and why do these mechanisms function? What do they look like on the ground in different contexts? Why do they have an outsized impact on a student's sense of meaning and purpose? This paper functions as a state-of-the-field report that describes the latest on microcollege pedagogy. Lastly, we as the Springboard Foundation outline our strategic priorities to support the field and make a call for outside investment.