The academy has undergone substantial change in the last decade with many new internal and external pressures. Relatively fewer full-time faculty are asked to do much more. Advisers are taking on more roles than previously expected, with little to no training. Graduate student enrollment has increased while the job market has tightened. Graduate…

Despite the essential position of introductory courses within most political science departments' curricula, comprehensive comparisons of introductory requirements for majors have been somewhat rare. In this manuscript, I report on the state of introductory requirements through analyses of data from 381 national liberal arts colleges and…

The use of games and simulation pedagogy has proliferated across political science and international relations, yet remains fledgling in political theory. Irrespective of discipline, the benefit of games and simulations is well established. However, existing simulations in political philosophy tend to address the teaching of the history of ideas,…

Drawing on six years of experience teaching Political Science classes with field experiences in the Dominican Republic, I discuss the design and implementation of effective sustainable development projects. What started as a one-off field experience has grown into a long-term relationship with the coffee growing community of El Naranjito, which…

The idea of one shared past, can develop identity-building potential. Nevertheless, there are diverse memory practices in plural societies and they are an expression of shared, divided, and conflicting memories. The negotiations of (diverse) past(s) and memories and, consequently, related belonging(s) to so-called 'remembrance communities' take…

Civic, social and political education (CSPE) is a mandatory citizenship education subject taken during the junior cycle in the Irish post-primary curriculum. This article looks at the historical development of the subject from its first incarnation as civics to its recreation as CSPE and then to its recent move into the Wellbeing Programme. The…

Engaged learning seeks to cultivate integrative approaches that require students to use multiple points of view or approaches in their coursework. Similarly, civically engaged courses ask students to consider public problems that involve multiple stakeholders, institutions, and policies. We are interested in whether courses designed to meet civic…

Mandated under Article 1, Section 2 of the United States Constitution, the decennial census determines the distribution of power and resources based upon population counts. College students are a hard-to-count population with limited knowledge about why the census matters and how to complete it. Politics and the global health pandemic made the…

Students entering contemporary higher education have the question of employability at the forefront of their minds, both when deciding which institution to study at and which subject to study. However, the notion of the "employability agenda" is not often welcomed by academics. Focusing on teaching and learning in the UK, this article…

In this article I discuss an approach to teaching about the Russian war in Ukraine that uses the war as a focal point for teaching about topics in comparative politics and international relations. I discuss the pedagogical advantages for political science teaching, including meeting the interests of students, introducing students to theories in…

Given that critical reflection on politics is a core mission of political science, we might expect the geographic expansion of the discipline to bring a wave of critical consciousness of public affairs across the world. A tension has emerged, though, between a political science that is global and one that is critical. Sources of that tension lie…

What is the impact of active learning techniques on student excitement, interest, and self-efficacy in a course? An American Foreign Policy and National Security course was designed around the utilization of a number of active learning techniques, including simulations, a debate, and counterfactual analysis. Students in the course were surveyed…

Inherently, populism questions elite values and expertise; thus, populists oppose and usually are opposed by elites. Here, I discuss how American Political Science treats elitism, pluralism, and populism, relying heavily on the U.S. Founders' constitutional approaches limiting the power of factions to impose social and political uniformity.…

U.S. undergraduates often hold ill-informed and stereotypical perceptions about the Middle East. While theories of comparative politics can help undergraduates gain a more nuanced view of the region, these theories often strike students as extremely abstract and unrelated to actual experience. The use of novels from the Middle East can help…

A key concept and problem in international relations, the security dilemma obtains when one state's attempts to increase its security decreases the security of other states. The security dilemma's consequences are said to include unnecessary armament and conflict spirals. Described herein is an in-class exercise that challenges students to…