SYMPOSIUM introduction – teaching politics: beyond the classroom john craig Assistant Dean, School of Social Science and Law, Teesside University, Middlesbrough TS1 3BA, UK E-mail:
[email protected] doi:10.1057/eps.2011.15; published online 20 May 2011
Abstract The articles presented in this symposium explore approaches to political science education that involve students in experiential learning through placements, service learning and community engagement projects. This introduction identifies key themes emerging from the articles and situates these within the wider context of debates on politics, teaching and learning.
Keywords
teaching and learning; placements; service learning; experiential
learning
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hen we think of universities we tend to picture buildings, whether these are ancient spires, grey tower blocks or the latest steel and glass constructions. Within these buildings we might expect to find an assortment of lecture theatres, seminar rooms, laboratories, staff offices and libraries with various learning activities taking place within them. For politics students such learning has traditionally entailed attending a diet of lectures and seminars in which a range of texts are dissected, debated and analysed. These texts, which may include journal articles, research monographs, textbooks and edited collections, are frequently to be found on the shelves of the library or accessed online through computers housed in learning resource centres.
Such modes of teaching have generally been assumed to be well suited to the teaching and learning of politics. As a subject it has generally sought to provide its students with an opportunity to study the activity of politicians, activists, citizens and government officials and to explore philosophical and methodological issues relating to this. In contrast to more vocational disciplines such as law, engineering and medicine, politics has not generally claimed to prepare those who study it to become practitioners themselves. As such, the development of learning strategies that focus on traditional academic activities within the classroom have generally taken precedent over those, which aim to provide students with first hand experience of the political actors and activities. european political science: 11 2012
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There have always been exceptions to this and a significant minority of politics courses have included opportunities for learning through placements and internships, which have provided students with first hand experiences of the practice of politics. In the opening article of this symposium 1, Steven Curtis of London Metropolitan University provides an overview of the different types of politics placement that have developed in the United Kingdom including the ‘Brunel sandwich’, ‘Westminster model’ and ‘Work placement’. However, as Curtis argues, in many cases these have had only limited integration into the wider curriculum and the experiential learning that students have engaged in has not been embedded within their wider intellectual development. To address this, he advocates the explicit linking of placement to the development of student’s research skills. The paper includes data from a range of interviews with students, which highlight not only how their understanding of the political world is enhanced by placement learning, but also how their employability is also developed through these learning experiences. The paper by David Bates explores a module that has been taught at Canterbury Christ Church University, which provides students with the opportunity to engage with the political world beyond the campus. Among the activities highlighted by Bates is a joint initiative with Kent TV to produce a film exploring the politics of housing in that area. Students were provided with equipment such as a camera, access to editing facilities and expert support by the TV station and used these to undertake interviews with local political actors and to organise a debate on the issue. Importantly, this was not simply an extra curricula activity for interested students to pursue in their own time, but was linked to a political research module and hence to the core politics curriculum. It reflected to the deeper conceptualisation
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‘y experiential learning through placements, service learning and community engagement projects’. ‘y politics has not generally claimed to prepare those who study it to become practitioners themselves’. by Bates of the university as a public space in which both academics, students, political actors and the wider public can come together to debate issues. The idea that universities should engage with the local communities, which they inhabit has given rise to the service learning movement in the United States and while it has become an aspect of teaching and learning in many disciplines, its use in political science education has attracted particular attention (Hartley, 2009). The paper by Clodagh Harris of University College Cork explores the pedagogical dimensions of service learning, drawing out the ways in which it can support students in the development of critical thinking and independent learning. Although, as she recognises, service learning is still at an early stage of development in Ireland, the potential for this to significantly enhance the experience of studying politics should not be underestimated. Harris presents evidence from students recording, how their conceptual and practical understandings of activism and citizenship have developed through engagement in this type of learning. A similar concern to engage student in the wider world of politics is reflected in the article by Annabel Kiernan, who
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reports on teaching strategies that she has developed in her work with students at Sheffield Hallam University. She begins the article by clearly stating her normative position that political science should develop the civic commitment of the students who study it. This is a controversial statement that would be challenged by those who see the academic study of the social sciences as a disinterested analysis of human interactions. However, it strikes a chord with those who argue that academic neutrality is an illusion and that those engaged in the study of politics have a responsibility to engage in social action (Robinson, 2000). Interestingly, Kiernan’s work has received positive comment in the national news media, where the relevance of her work at a time of public disenchantment with politics has been recognised (Richardson, 2009). One of the teaching strategies used by Kiernan provides students with the opportunity to engage with FC United of Manchester, a non-profit organisation established by people who were supporters of the premiership club of a similar name and who were opposed to the commercialisation of football. Students engage in activities that could be defined as political within a broad definition of the term that embraces actions outside the formal governmental and part political spheres (Hay, 2007: 61–89). Kiernan argues that such an approach provides students with the tools to challenge the dominant neo-liberal order and develop alternatives to establish systems of power. There are many rationales for developing forms of teaching and learning for
‘y political science education is beginning to escape the confines of the classroom’. politics that encourage our students to look beyond the classroom and engage with the wider community. Some of those identified in the papers here have emphasised those that accrue to the students who take part in such learning (e.g. enhanced employability), while others have identified the wider social benefits that can be generated for the community. Certainly, all the learning experiences that are explored in this symposium challenge the model of the student as a passive consumer of education and provide opportunities for student to engage in active learning. Whether this results in students pursuing political and civic activities beyond their studies is beyond the scope of these studies. However, there is good reason to think that they will make these choices on the basis of a deeper understanding of the political world that they inhabit. As demonstrated by these papers, there is a growing recognition of the merits of introducing such learning into the core diet of politics students. Works such as Curtis and Blair (2010) and Sloam (2010) provide further examples of how politics teaching can embrace active and experiential learning. We may still think of the university as consisting of buildings, but political science education is beginning to escape the confines of the classroom.
Note 1 The papers presented in this symposium were first presented in panel at the Annual Conference of the UK Political Studies Association held in Manchester in 2009, organised by the Specialist Group on Teaching and Learning, and we are delighted to be able to make them available to a wider audience. john craig
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References Curtis, S. and Blair, A. (eds.) (2010) The Scholarship of Engagement for Politics: Placement Learning, Citizenship and Employability, Birmingham: C-SAP. Hartley, M. (2009) ‘Reclaiming the democratic purpose of American higher education: Tracing the trajectory of the civic engagement movement’, Learning and Teaching: The International Journal of Higher Education in the Social Sciences (LATISS) 2(3): 1–10. Hay, C. (2007) Why We Hate Politics, Cambridge: Polity. Robinson, T. (2000) ‘Service learning as justice advocacy: Can political scientists do politics?’ PS: Political Science and Politics 33(3): 605–612. Richardson, H. (2009) ‘Students to learn how to protest’, BBC News 30 November, http://news.bbc .co.uk/1/hi/education/8386885.stm. Sloam, J. (ed.) (2010) ‘Thematic issues on youth, citizenship and political science education: Question for the discipline’, Journal of Political Science Education 6(4).
About the Author John Craig is a national teaching fellow and assistant dean in the School of Social Sciences and Law at Teesside University in the UK. Previously, he taught at the University of Huddersfield and was director of the Case-based Learning in Politics project. He is convener of the Specialist Group for Teaching and Learning of the UK Political Studies Association and chairs the Advisory Board of the UK Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Sociology, Anthropology and Politics (C-SAP).
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