Best practices in the American undergraduate political science curriculum (original) (raw)
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A Century of Continuity and (Little) Change in the Undergraduate Political Science Curriculum
American Political Science Review, 2006
A lthough in recent years there has emerged a renewed interest in teaching and learning issues in the APSA, relatively little attention has been paid to the structure of the undergraduate political science curriculum. In this article we conduct a broad survey of articles that appeared in the APSR from 1906 to 1990 and find that (1) in the past the association paid much attention to the undergraduate political science curriculum; (2) over time attention shifted from a conception of the major as promoting substantive knowledge to a conception that emphasized skills; and (3) current concerns regarding skills, sequencing, and capstone experiences were all discussed several decades before the appearance of the "Wahlke Report" in 1991. We offer an explanation for the ebb and flow of the attention curricular issues received historically in the APSA, and suggest what the future may hold for current efforts to reexamine the structure of the undergraduate political science curriculum.
Political History and/as the Future for Undergraduate American Politics Curriculum
This paper outlines our response to fundamental challenges confronting undergraduate political science education. While enrollments in the political science major have declined at many institutions, including our own, we believe a structured APD approach offers an opportunity to capitalize on the wave of youth activism as well as the turbulent moment in contemporary politics by framing our major as the place where students can go to learn more about how we reached this particular political moment, think about what it takes and means to make change in a thoughtful, meaningful way, and equip themselves with the tools to interpret both the rhetorical and institutional contexts in which they hope to make this change while also overcoming some of the hurdles posed by the distribution model that remains the prevalent structure of many political science undergraduate programs.
2005
Is there a relationship between the way an undergraduate major in the social sciences is structured and student learning? In this paper, I address the relationship between the structure of the undergraduate major and student learning using data from the political science discipline. To assess the impact of the structure of the major on student achievement, a 29-item electronic questionnaire was employed. I find a very strong relationship between the degree to which a political science major program is structured and student knowledge, even when controlling for plausible alternative explanations for student performance. The results support the notion that majors that are characterized by a sequenced set of courses, the existence of a senior seminar or capstone course, and a required research methodology course taken early on in a Student's career, better prepare political science students than do relatively unstructured majors.
Journal of Political Science Education, 2020
Prepublication version of forthcoming piece. Despite the essential position of introductory courses within most political science department’s curriculum, 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 universities (164 colleges and 217 universities, respectively) that offer a major or its equivalent in political science. My analyses reveal that a great deal of curricula diversity exists across departments: while nearly 30% of departments require at least 3 distinct introductory subfield courses, another near-30% do not require any specific introductory courses. Despite this diversity, an introductory course in American politics represents the de facto standard introductory course within the discipline. In comparison, a general, cross-subfield introductory course in political science is required in a minority of the departments sampled. My analyses reveal that structural and curriculum-based variables, including the total number of courses required, whether or not a department grants Ph.D.’s, and faculty size, are correlated with a general introductory requirement.
Using Alumni Views to Connect the Past, Present, and Future in Political Science
PS: Political Science & Politics, 2017
This article describes the collection of views from political science alumni via a web-based survey as a central part of efforts to review and improve the curriculum and the broader political science program at a public university. Based on the literature and on interviews with faculty members and former students, we iteratively constructed a questionnaire containing five categories of items: program structure, content/knowledge, skills, outcomes, and learning environment. These categories were intended to capture curricular elements and outcomes that include but extend beyond employment and professional-skill attainment. Graduate students contributed in meaningful ways to the effort through a research-methods course. The article discusses how results of the survey fed into the curriculum-revision process specifically and program review and assessment considerations more generally.
Two sides of the same coin: political science as professional and civic education
European Political Science, 2020
While the relevance of political science is often evaluated with respect to its scholarly impact, evaluations of the teaching impact are rare. This paper offers a step towards strengthening the societal relevance of a political science degree. We treat the societal relevance of political science as a matter of the (non-)academic career preparation and civic education of its graduates. We are therefore interested in the career paths and individual learning outcomes of Austrian political science graduates. Data from the Graduate Monitoring and semi-structured interviews show that most graduates work outside of academia, moreover, as our results show, many graduates state that they had to acquire additional skills for their professional careers. Consequently, future curricula might consider a stronger focus on non-academic career preparation. At the same time, however, graduates highly value the civic dimension of the programme and the impact it had on their political agency.
This paper examines whether competing an introductory-level political science course affects student political efficacy with panel survey data from a flagship public university. We found that completing an introductory-level course had little impact on internal political efficacy, when controlling for other factors. However, we found an important racial divide on external political efficacy, with black students less likely to believe they could influence political decisions by end of semester. This raises questions about the “civic” function of the undergraduate political science curriculum—particularly regarding racial political inequalities.