Teaching Political Science Research Articles

A Crash Course in Learning Communities for the Political Scientist

A Crash Course in Learning Communities for the Political Scientist

Re-evaluation of Political Education as Political Science Education : In the Case of Instructional Materials Based on Behavioral Science Politics

Re-evaluation of Political Education as Political Science Education : In the Case of Instructional Materials Based on Behavioral Science Politics

The Political Science Educational Philosophy of Ralph Bunche: Theory and Practice

This article is based upon a textual analysis of Ralph Bunche's writings since 1940 to determine nature, scope, and significance of his educational philosophy of discipline of political science. From this textual analysis of his writings, article finds that five major intellectual categories emerged from his writings and notes; whether those categories were original ones and/or whether they were modifications of categories already in existence. After having evaluated original and secondary nature of these categories, this article indicates that Bunche's educational philosophy created a different perspective and vision for discipline. Herein lays his great contribution. Embedded in Ralph Bunche's writings and organizational practices is a unique and exceptional conceptualization of political science as a discipline. This conceptualization and vision, which we shall call an educational philosophy, is not to be found in a single coherent and comprehensive publication, document, and/or volume. Yet, it does exist in his wide and diverse and scattered writings and leadership roles and practices in Howard University Department of Political Science, presidency of American Political Science Association, positions at U.S. Department of State, and in leadership positions at United Nations. It is also to be found in his four research memoranda for Gunnar Myrdal report, An American Dilemma, and in his field research in South Africa (Edgar, 1992; Grantham, 1973). Here, in these sundry works, Bunche left an intellectual record, and it is possible to delineate from that record of scholarship and field studies his conceptualization of Political Science as a discipline that challenges, contrasts, and diverges sharply with dominant and consensus one now describing discipline. DATA AND METHODOLOGY Bunche delivered his presidential address to American Political Science Association (APSA) in Chicago, Illinois on September 9, 1954 which just happened to be 50th anniversary of organization (Bunche, 1954). Using this unique moment in time, as well as this historic occasion (of being first African American to serve as President of APSA), this President told membership that nation state and international community had certain problem areas, which merited greater attention from discipline of political science (Bunche, 1954). Among problems that Bunche noted were the problem of colonialism, particularly of colonial Africa; fear, intolerance, suspicion, and confusion emanating from racial demagogues; and second-class citizenship emerging from racial segregation, White supremacy, and disenfranchisement (Bunche, 1954, p. 969). In Bunche's view, these grave problems had been ignored by discipline. These pressing problem areas facing profession and society threatened both freedom and democracy (Bunche, 1954). But perhaps most importantly is not Bunche's identification of these problems, but what they offer in terms of insights into mind of a public intellectual who happens to be an African American political scientist. Undergirding these poignant remarks and suggestions is a vision and perspective of discipline of political science that, while borne of past and present, offers a course correction and reform for future. To see this vision and perspective with its proposed reforms for an academic discipline and professional organization, this study will begin with a textual analysis of Bunche's post-1940 writings and delineate from those works and appropriate secondary sources seminal intellectual categories of his educational philosophy. Moreover, study will reconstruct, from these categories of ideas and reflections, a systematic and holistic portrait of Bunche's desired political science education. 1940 was chosen as point of departure for this study because in this Special Issue there is an article by Jonathan Scott Holloway which offers an excellent exposition of Bunche's intellectual ideas from early 1930s until 1940s. …

About the Authors

Based on the Delphi technique, the project described in this article seeks to integrate the teaching of classical political science with the analysis of problems facing contemporary and future society. Experts on particular political philosophers of the past were asked to imagine how those men would have viewed and solved present political problems, and thus to use their knowledge to develop a new approach to policy analysis.

Community Service Learning: Bridging Education and Social Practice

Advocates of service learning believe that meaningful education should provide students with opportunities to learn about themselves while learning about the world around them. Many proponents of service learning also believe that connecting education to the world of public affairs is critical to the future functioning of a democratic society. As early as the founding of the Republic, Thomas Jefferson recognized the importance of normative education in nurturing public civility and tolerance. John Dewey's (1916 and 1938) theories of experiential and democratic education recognized the importance of engaging students in the concrete problems of their communities so they might develop the skills necessary for civic engagement. Teachers of political science have a unique opportunity for fostering a student's love of learning with a passion for greater social justice. This article examines the evolution of a community service project designed to address the problems of poor Hispanic farm families. The article discusses the evolution of the project, the strategies, struggles, and the lessons learned along the way for both students and faculty.

POLITICAL SCIENCE ON THE PERIPHERY: Sweden

▪ Abstract Swedish political science has a long pedigree. The Johan Skytte professorship of discourse and politics was established at Uppsala University in 1622, although political science teaching and research did not begin until the 1860s. Today, the discipline is represented at all 10 Swedish universities and at a number of other centers for higher education. Early Swedish political science gravitated toward constitutional law, history, and philosophy. In principle, the discipline today deals with all possible aspects of politics; as far as domestic politics research is concerned, special emphasis has been given to analysis of ideas, local politics, interest organizations, and political parties, as well as public administration and public policy. Contacts with the outside world have been close; different worldwide theories and methods have successively been incorporated. The relations between the discipline and the surrounding Swedish society have also been close and the reputation and visibility of the discipline fairly high.

Sequential or Flexible? The Impact of Differently Structured Political Science Majors on the Development of Student Reasoning

of political science at Truman State lJniversity and research coordinator for the Ronald E. McNair Program. He has published widely in both political science and higher education journals. His teaching and research interests focus on comparative politics, with a special emphasis on democratization and political party development in the former USSR and Eastern Europe. He can be reached at jishiyam@truman.edu.

News and Notes

The Romanian Society of Political Studies invites membership applicationsfrom international scholars with relevant interests. The Society was established in January 2000 to enhance and provide an institutional setting for efforts aimed at improving the standards of Romanian political science. It emerged as a response to the growing need for better communication and co-ordination between scholars based at established institutions and those working independently both within Romania and abroad. Its main goal is to improve the academic teaching and research environment in political science in Romania.

Moving from Forums for the People to Forums by the People

For more than 20 years, thousands of people around world have participated in civic forums for deliberation. Initially issues were named and framed with tremendous support and guidance from Charles F. Kettering Foundation. Gradually, guides were custom-designed with partners such as schools, churches, colleges and universities, community development, adult literacy, policy centers and institutes, and libraries, and often National Issues Forum Institute. The Foundation, research organization, is keenly interested in engagement and participation in society, and forums have offered type of laboratory for studying the public as it considers and weighs most compelling issues of our times, such as children who commit crimes, troubled American family, money and politics, racial and ethnic tensions, terrorism, Americans' role in world, rising costs of health care, welfare, immigration, freedom of speech, social security and retirement, and restoring trust in media. Naming and framing issues might be thought to be best left to experts in fields such as policy, communications, political science, sociology, or adult education. Indeed, individuals representing these areas and others have often been critical contributors to work. Yet, perhaps preparing frameworks for deliberation should include public, who are most affected by these Their contribution can address language, perspectives, values, and ideas for action beyond those of professional experts. In addition, inclusion of language, stories, opinions, and values can increase support. Adult educators engaged in community development and program design are well suited for issue development and forum implementation. In many places, they are indeed part of National Issues Forum network, a nonpartisan, informal association of educational and community organizations that convene forums for citizens to deliberate on issues. However, there is room and need for many more adult educators to associate with these forums because citizens, new and old, more than ever need opportunities to deliberate on national issues and reengage in civic life. Adult educators may initially feel that they lack content expertise to address complex policy Yet, they do know how to tap content specialists as team members to work with them and for purposes of naming and framing Public perceptions and values as they weigh these issues are as cogent to deliberation as the facts. Another initial hesitancy to engage in forums could be challenge of how to promote and implement programs for an audience as diffuse as the public. Adult education program planning resources are rich in information about publicizing inclusive programs. The heritage of adult education, including works by Knowles, E. Johnson, and Lindeman, illuminates social benefits of forming partnerships and relationships with diverse audiences to expand participation of our many publics. Democracy requires voices of both majority and minority Adult educators also recognize that programs require investments of time, energy, and money. Sharing investments and returns on these investments with multiple partners maximizes and benefits outcomes and heightens odds that such programs are sustained. So while appreciating Kettering Foundation's generosity, more and more partners are experimenting more independently with naming and framing issues on their own. To see this happen is indeed rewarding to those who have worked closely with Foundation and early associates in National Issues Forums. Also, sense of ownership results from shaping deliberations from their perspectives. Following are some exemplars of partners and collaborators who illustrate how to present issues for attention. …

Transcript: Roundtable on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Political Science

The symposium begins with an edited transcript of the roundtable, “The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Political Science,” held during the 2001 APSA Annual Meeting. Next, Susan E. Clarke, University of Colorado, Boulder and Carnegie Scholar in 2000, synthesizes the objectives of STL—one of which specifies that STL be discipline-based—in her introduction to Jenny R. Kehl's data essay. In her essay, Jenny Kehl provides an initial exploration of what can be classified as STL work in political science. Finally, the annotated bibliography of STL literature prepared by Pat Hutchings, Chris Bjork, and Marcia Babb provides references for political science faculty new to this discussion.

La mise en forme savante des sciences politiques. Les usages de la référence allemande dans l'institutionnalisation de l'Ecole libre des sciences politiques à la fin du XIXe siècle

Shaping French political science. The German model and the institutionalisation of the Ecole libre des sciences politiques in the late 19th century Rachel Vanneuville The purpose is to examine how both definition and teaching of political science in the Ecole libre des sciences politiques has been influenced by a reference to Germany. The context of the Sedan military defeat but above ail the admiration for the German high school system and the content of its pedagogy shaped the background for the creation of the French school. Our aim is to evaluate to what extent the German model have been used as a « scientific backing » to legitimise the, not yet established in this period, political science.

The dutch political science association 1950–2000

Founding Years of Discipline and Association Dutch political science claims early roots. In 1613 Daniel Heinsius became Professor of Politices at Leiden University. The various sciences bearing a relation to the state were then regarded as one body of ‘scientia politica’. During the 19th century, however, the juridical-legalistic point of view began to predominate in the theory of the state, and between roughly 1840 and the end of World War II Dutch universities practically neglected the existence of political science proper. Immediately after the war, the University of Amsterdam established a new Faculty of Political and Social Sciences. Its two founding fathers were both historians but as early as the 1930s one of them, Jan Romein, had become well acquainted with American political science. The holders of the first three chairs in political science in the Netherlands, established between 1948 and 1953, had themselves studied law. It was only in 1963, with the appointment of Hans Daudt in Amsterdam, that the first professor of political science was appointed who had himself studied political science. The appointment of other political scientists, Hans Daalder in Leiden and Andries Hoogerwerf in Nijmegen, soon followed. This new generation of professors signalled the beginning of the development of political science as a separate discipline, with its own subject matter and research methods. At that time, most Dutch political scientists followed the example of their American and English colleagues by embracing behaviouralism and focusing on electoral studies. The Dutch Political Science Association itself was founded in 1950 as the ‘Nederlandse Kring voor Wetenschap der Politiek’ (literally the ‘Dutch Circle for the Science of Politics’). Only a part of its members was made up of political science teachers. Others were constitutional lawyers, economists, historians and sociologists, as well as journalists and politicians. The members met a few times a year to read and discuss papers on subjects related to political science. Papers on public administration and international relations were discussed in two other bodies, the ‘Instituut voor Bestuurswetenschappen’ (‘Institute for Administrative Sciences’), established in 1939, and the ‘Genootschap voor Internationale Zaken’ (‘Society for International Affairs’), which had begun in 1947 to publish the monthly journal Internationale Spectator. This situation was and is rather typical for Dutch political science. Where in many other countries international relations and public administration are part of political science, in the same way that comparative politics and electoral studies are, in the Netherlands they stand more or less apart. In the founding years of the discipline, this had much to do on the one hand with the left-wing origins of the Amsterdam Faculty of Political and Social Sciences (which was called the ‘red Faculty’), and on the other hand with the fact that at that time the great majority of diplomats and public administrators (who had often worked in the Dutch East Indies) had studied law in Leiden. The latter could not easily identify with the new discipline and its ambitions and kept aloof.

Whom is political science for?

We all study political science, but - what do we actually do here anyway? This essay expresses our thoughts about our subject. The everyday life in University doesn’t seem to give enough space for questioning what is this all about. Maybe a debate on that issue does not exist extensively because of fears of the loss of entitlement. The aim of this essay is to support the heightening of student’s awareness about the status quo of research and teaching in political science as we can judge it from our modest experiences. Trying to get to the basis of such a problem is not easy. The things here written are surely not the state of the art, but they could shine a better light on the problem what had been called the 'politics of political science' in an earlier Internet discussion on the IAPSS website. This paper should be understood as a start for a discussion, where we all can express our surely different experiences and ideas.

Taking the Show on the Road: Teaching Political Science in English at Foreign Universities

Effective education quite obviously requires that instructors possess both substantive expertise and the ability to communicate that expertise to students. Although skilled teachers routinely meet these dual requirements, doing so sometimes presents a seemingly inexorable dilemma. In this article we address one such situation: when an instructor in possession of the requisite substantive expertise is incapable of teaching in the students' native language.

"We Don't Sleep around like White Girls Do": Family, Culture, and Gender in Filipina American Lives

Au Etats-Unis, les immigres Philippins resistent a differentes formes de discrimination a travers l'affirmation de certaines specificites culturelles. Par exemple, la chastete des femmes avant le mariage est presentee comme une resistance au modele de la societe dominante blanche americaine, mais ceci se fait au prix de l'autonomie des femmes et renforce le pouvoir patriarcal dans ces communautes

Innovative Teaching in Political Science: 2000 Rowman & Littlefield Award Winner Mark A. Boyer

Innovative Teaching in Political Science: 2000 Rowman & Littlefield Award Winner Mark A. Boyer

Innovative Teaching in Political Science: 2000 Rowman & Littlefield Award Winner Mark A. Boyer

Innovative Teaching in Political Science: 2000 Rowman & Littlefield Award Winner Mark A. Boyer

Political Science Research Internships and Political Science Education

This article reports on the evaluation of political science research internships and considers their costs and benefits for a political science education. Students indicated high levels of appreciation of the inaugural Political Science Research Internship Unit at the University of Western Australia in terms of its contribution to their personal development and work experience. A substantial number of interns gained insights into the policy process through this form of experiential learning. Many came to appreciate the contingency and the normative dimensions of knowledge in the policy process. Whereas about half of the students found the transition from the seminar room to the policy world difficult, the other half were more successful in applying their theoretical knowledge to practical experiences. The article also indicates how this evaluation informs future course design.

The Theater of Politics: Hannah Arendt, Political Science, and Higher Education. By Eric B. Gorham. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2000. 235p. $65.00 cloth, $24.95 paper.

The Theater of Politics: Hannah Arendt, Political Science, and Higher Education. By Eric B. Gorham. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2000. 235p. $65.00 cloth, $24.95 paper.

The theater of politics: Hannah Arendt, political science, and higher education

Chapter 1 Acknowledgements Chapter 2 Introduction Chapter 3 Acting in Politics Chapter 4 The Theater of Politics and the Space of Appearance Chapter 5 A Mode of Being Alone: Reporting Truth in Political Science Chapter 6 Making an Example Out of Eichmann Chapter 7 The University As a Theater of Politics Chapter 8 Action and the Founding of the European Community Chapter 9 The Acting Class Chapter 10 Participation and Judgement in the University Community Chapter 11 The Drama of the Space of Appearance Chapter 12 References Chapter 13 Index