Teaching International Relations Research Articles

Modelling Online Innovation Among IR and Politics Lecturers

ABSTRACTThis article discusses the use of collaborative online technology in the teaching of international relations and politics. Using a case study from Australia, it finds low levels of online innovation in these discipline areas that correlate with broader examinations of technology use in higher education teaching. Themes of time poverty, technical competence, and lack of career reward are frequently cited as barriers to trying new approaches. The data indicate that at present the most common outcome of any aspiration for IR/politics staff considering innovation is that the effort required to incorporate collaborative online learning is not repaid. These findings are meaningful, since the current lack of innovation and the perceptions of staff regarding support for such approaches are at odds with the marketplace pressures staff and their institutions are under. Based upon the data collected and the wider literature on technology adoption, this article proposes a “Technology-Assisted Teaching Adoption Model” (TATAM) that attempts to encapsulate the innovation judgements made by academic staff and the steadily diminishing incentives they feel towards changing their online teaching methods.

O ensino de Relações Internacionais e o cinema: reflexões sobre o uso de filmes como uma ferramenta pedagógica

This article evaluates the potentials and limits of using films to teach International Relations by taking into account the perception achieved by students from two different classes in Brazil, one from the Federal University of Uberlândia (MG) and another from the University Vila Velha (ES). Among the several conclusions, the most substantial one is that films – even the most didactic ones, such as documentaries – require some mediation by professor(s) in order to organize and enable learning.

‘The message is the medium’: Evaluating the use of visual images to provoke engagement and active learning in politics and international relations lectures

Globalization and digitization have combined to create a ‘pictorial turn’ that has transformed communication landscapes. Routine exposure to visual stimuli like images has acculturated our students’ learning processes long before their arrival at university. But when they reach us, we expose them to text-centric teaching out of kilter with the worlds from which they come. More importantly, emerging scholarship argues that such textual hegemony is out of kilter with how they learn. This article describes a 3-year experiment to assess the veracity of such claims. It found that student academic engagement was greater when apposite images were applied. In addition, the experiment revealed that introducing imagery triggered active learning behaviours. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for politics and international relations teaching.

O uso do role-play no ensino de negociações internacionais

Poucos são os trabalhos dedicados a promover um balanço sobre os principais ganhos do uso de simulações, em termos pedagógicos, no ensino de Relações e Negociações Internacionais. Prevalecem amplamente, dentre os trabalhos disponíveis, relatos qualitativos sobre procedimentos e aplicações das simulações e/ou teste de hipóteses correntes na literatura. A avaliação comparada da experiência de simulações, tomando por base um grande número de aplicações, não é comum entre os estudos do gênero. Este artigo tem por objetivo preencher esta lacuna tomando por base a experiência de ensino nesta área, apoiada pela Pró-Reitoria de Graduação da USP, com o Programa Pró-Ensino.

The Long Game: Five Years of Simulating the Middle East

Scholarly literature attesting to the benefits of role play in teaching International Relations or Political Science subjects is abundant and universally positive. However, despite many case studies presenting snapshots of single examples, long term data concerning a role play exercise is difficult to find. This study presents student feedback data gathered from ten iterations of the Middle East Politics Simulation carried out over five years from 2011-15. The data obtained from hundreds of respondents establishes very clear trends in terms of satisfaction, engagement and workload. The findings demonstrate that students can be significantly engaged in the subject matter through role plays and that they value these opportunities and the learning that ensues, even though it may represent more work than they are used to allotting to traditional assignments. The results show that year after year, successive student cohorts have made a clear judgement that extra work is worthwhile when it pays off against their perceived learning. The inference can also be drawn that they do not see this same pay off when completing essay type assignments.

Undead Pedagogy: How a Zombie Simulation Can Contribute to Teaching International Relations

A global zombie outbreak constitutes a hypothetical event in world politics that could likely lead to the collapse of civilization. At the same time, the very threat of such a global catastrophe offers a unique experimental terrain on which to investigate various possible changes and developments in human interaction in social, economic, and political processes. In this article, we discuss our experience with using a global zombie outbreak-based simulation in International Relations teaching and our attempt at measuring the learning outcomes, taking our point of departure in the existing literature on active learning. Following an outline of the objectives, setup, and parameters of the simulation, we evaluate the results of the survey we conducted of the student participants and discuss the learning outcomes discerned.

A Matter of Perspective Teaching International Relations in the Middle East

Abstract In this article, the author looks at several popular international relations textbooks in light of his experience teaching students in the Middle East. He finds that, for their many strengths, most of the books lack some key features that would make them more useful for students abroad.

Misusing Virtual Worlds Can Be Dangerous: A Response to Carvalho

The article “Virtual Worlds Can Be Dangerous: Using Ready-Made Computer Simulations for Teaching International Relations” reports on one class's experiences with the Statecraft simulation. Students reported confusion regarding the simulation rules, questioned its utility as a teaching tool, and found that Statecraft was unrealistically prone to cycles of violence including nuclear war. However, the article makes no mention of the fact that Statecraft was used in this classroom in ways that directly contradicted its explicit instructions. These instructions were designed to maximize Statecraft's pedagogical effectiveness and prevent precisely the sorts of negative outcomes this class experienced. Specifically, the simulation was not properly set up before Turn 1, students were not incentivized to learn the simulation rules, the all-important grading system appears not to have been used, and the instructor materials that are essential for helping students make sense of their Statecraft experience are nowhere mentioned in the article and appear not to have been used. This brief response highlights the most important features of the Statecraft design and pedagogical intent that were entirely absent from this article, so that readers may gain a more complete picture of what Statecraft was intended to do and how it is designed to work.

Rejoinder to “Misusing Virtual Worlds Can Be Dangerous: A Response to Carvalho”

This is a rejoinder to “Misusing Virtual Worlds Can Be Dangerous: A Response to Carvalho”, a rebuttal to my paper “Virtual Worlds Can Be Dangerous: Using Ready-Made Computer Simulations for Teaching International Relations.”

The Added Value of ‘Instructional Simulation Practices’ in Teaching International Relations and European Studies (IRES)

Instructional simulation practices represent a milestone in the educational methodology of most western universities by harmonizing equal balance between theory and practice. This paper will describe and assess the positive role that simulation practices offer towards better acquisition of the theoretical input during the undergraduate academic courses in the discipline of International Relations and European Studies (IRES). It will investigate and identify the need for academic integration of simulation activities in the core academic courses shedding light on the discrepancies of the current academic practice at in Albania, simultaneously, highlighting the advantages of instructional simulation towards in-depth learning versus surface learning of theory. The paper will be conducted through utilizing observation method with the contrastive textual analysis of the theoretical and empirical data, thus providing an argumentative exhibition and credible insights on the necessity of simulation practices to be intertwined with the academic compulsory curricula for better comprehension of the IRES theoretical concepts. It will draw on the successful experiences applied by international academic initiatives and upon their advantageous value to engage students in analytical learning, critical thinking and eloquence, building public speaking models, seeing the correlation between scientific knowledge and the tangible testable hypotheses on the empirical level. Unfortunately, the traditional Albanian higher education suffers from an unbalance between the massive theoretical input of the academic curricula - in our case study to the discipline of IRES - with the transfer, implementation and active learning of the theories of international relations and theoretical approaches to European Union. Therefore, incorporating and practicing instructional simulation at the undergraduate academic courses of IRES implies equipping the future political leaders, international negotiators, European delegates and prospective Albanian experts of international organizations with the scholastic knowledge and the relevant social interactive skills. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2014.v4n2p340

A Matter of Perspective: Teaching International Relations in the Middle East

In this article, the author looks at several popular international relations textbooks in light of his experience teaching students in the Middle East. He finds that, for their many strengths, most of the books lack some key features that would make them more useful for students abroad.

Homer’s Iliad and Modern IR

The author asserts that a liberal arts approach to teaching International Relations (IR) is a unique way to teach undergraduates and to conduct research that is reflective of and relevant to real-world situations. A liberal arts approach includes interdisciplinarity, a bottom-up method to balance the top-down elite orientation of conventional IR, and data collection that focuses on human beings in real-life, concrete conditions. The article offers specific examples of interdisciplinarity in the classroom, including the use of literature, visual arts, and music, to enrich students' understanding of international relations.

Book Review: Britain and Ireland: Teaching Politics and International Relations

Book Review: Britain and Ireland: Teaching Politics and International Relations

Teaching Diplomacy by Other Means: Using an Outside-of-Class Simulation to Teach International Relations Theory

In this article, we introduce the online version of the board game Diplomacy as a pedagogical tool to teach about the strengths and limitations of constructivism, liberalism, and realism. Beyond helping students learn about the three paradigms, the game has two additional benefits over traditional role-playing simulations. First, the online nature of the game allows it to take place outside of class, freeing up more class time, and creating fewer opportunity costs for instructors who want to use simulations. Second, Diplomacy allows for a more straightforward method of assessment because it has clear rules that apply equally to all students. Plus, the online version provides a platform that gives instructors better insight into student participation. Using data, we show that students enjoyed the game, saw it as educational, and liked the fact that they played it outside of class. We conclude that online Diplomacy and outside-of-class simulations can be used as helpful tools to teach about international relations.

Simulation Games in Teaching International Relations: Insights from a Multi-Day, Multi-Stage, Multi-Issue Simulation on Cyprus

This article reviews experiences from a large-scale student simulation, which concluded the Istanbul Conference on Mediation: Enhancing Peace through Mediation that took place in February 2012. We share insights on two unique aspects of the simulation. First, the paper examines a rare case where the simulation crossed paths with real life: a number of the impersonated officials (and offices) including the president of the General Assembly of the UN, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, and the Director of the Policy and Mediation Division of the UN Department of Political Affairs were in the audience and shared their impressions. Second, the setup of the simulation was more complex than its typical in-class counterparts. Our insights from this multi-day, multi-stage, and multi-issue simulation can inform colleagues who plan to run larger scale simulations. Besides sharing experiences on a number of logistical points, we especially draw attention to the constructive role facilitators can play in augmenting the learning benefits accruing to the students from simulations.

Teaching Diplomacy by Other Means: Using an Outside-of-Class Simulation to Teach International Relations Theory

In this article, we introduce the online version of the board game Diplomacy as a pedagogical tool to teach about the strengths and limitations of constructivism, liberalism, and realism. Beyond helping students learn about the three paradigms, the game has two additional benefits over traditional role-playing simulations. First, the online nature of the game allows it takes place outside of class, freeing up more class time and creating fewer opportunity costs for instructors who want to use simulations. Second, Diplomacy allows for a more straightforward method of assessment because it has clear rules that apply equally to all students. Plus, the online version provides a platform that gives instructors better insight into student participation. Using data, we show that students enjoyed the game, saw it as educational, and liked the fact that they played it outside of class. We conclude that online Diplomacy and outside-of-class simulations can be used as helpful tools to teach about international relations.

Beyond the published discipline: Toward a critical pedagogy of international studies

The growing sociology of International Relations literature systematically investigates the discipline’s organization and inner structuring. Making the academic field cognizant of its own institutional and intellectual configurations, the literature today empowers scholars to engage critically with the analytical, geocultural, and political lenses through which International Relations explains world politics. This contribution notwithstanding, there is a continuing focus in the literature on leading (flagship) publications as indicators of intellectual proclivities, and on International Relations scholars as their only relevant audiences. This article challenges this focus and expands the sociology of International Relations literature’s scope of analysis. Making the case for an inquiry into classroom socialization practices, it maps the paradigmatic, geocultural, gendered, and historical perspectives taught to students in the case of 23 American and European International Relations graduate programs. Pointing to differences between the instructed and the published discipline, the article shows how the instructed discipline is governed and constrained by different kinds of intellectual parochialisms. Problematizing the educative functions of these, it advocates a more self-reflexive understanding of International Relations teaching (a domain in which scholars have greater agency) and the enactment of a critical pedagogy of international studies.

Interrogating “They”: A Pedagogy of Feminist Pluralism in the International Relations Classroom

This essay discusses a pedagogical approach to the teaching of international relations grounded in both a pluralist approach to the study of politics and post-modern feminism. Whereas pluralism helpfully draws attention to the wide range of actors that play a role in world politics and the multiplicity of factors that shape the motivations, identities, and behaviors of these actors, post-modern feminism underscores the fact that actors—and their identities, norms, and interests—are constructed rather than given. In combination, these perspectives encourage students and teachers to focus not only on diversity within and across societies but also on the possibilities for constructing alternative models of politics and for building coalitions across presumed divisions of politics, ideology, culture, gender, and other social markers. The essay provides an overview of strategies for integrating a pedagogy of feminist pluralism in the international relations classroom.

Montesquieu on Ancient Greek Foreign Relations

Montesquieu famously claims that modernity ushered in gentle mores and peaceful relations among countries. Consulting Montesquieu’s teaching on Greek foreign policy, both republican and imperial, elucidates the character of these peaceful mores. Montesquieu weaves a modernization tale from primitive ancient Greece to modern commercial states, all to teach the reader to overcome any lingering attachment to glory and to adopt the rational standards of national interest and self-preservation. This account provides important insights on the relationship between realism and idealism in Montesquieu’s international relations teaching and helps scholars to rethink how these categories are construed.

Integrating Normative Theory in Teaching International Relations

Mansbach, Richard W. (2011) Integrating Normative Theory in Teaching International Relations.International StudiesPerspectives, doi: 10.1111/j.1528-3585.2011.00451.x © 2011 International Studies Association This essay outlines the ways in which the author presents normative theory to his students in his courses and textbook in international relations.