Teaching Theory as a Transformative Praxis in International Studies

Abstract

Abstract A pedagogical plan promoting a “Global” approach to international relations theory (IRT) requires us to bridge two gaps: first, the “published-taught gap” (even if published IRT is endowed with non-Western worldviews, taught IRT suffers from Western parochialism); second, the “theory-praxis gap” (though non-Western worldviews supply theoretical perspectives, they are often not translated into doable policy actions). To bridge these gaps, this chapter presents the pedagogical plan of “teaching theory as a transformative praxis.” In IRT classrooms, this pedagogical plan proceeds in three stages. The first stage revisits the “great debates” of IRT from Western as well as non-Western vantage points. The second stage performs cross-fertilization between ontologies, methodologies, and epistemologies of Western and non-Western IRT. Finally, the third stage shows how the search for complementarities between Western and non-Western IRT—under the aegis of Global IRT—forms a creative platform to invent innovative proposals to deal with diverse policy problems relating to contemporary world politics.