Tips for Teaching in Today's Political Science Classroom

Curious how others are teaching Political Science in today’s divisive environment? Three experienced instructors discuss real strategies for turning today's polarization and misinformation into opportunities for richer, more effective learning.

Summary
Teaching political science in today’s dynamic and polarized environment presents unique challenges and opportunities. In this roundtable discussion, three distinguished Sage authors explore strategies for navigating these complexities. From addressing misinformation to fostering respectful dialogue, this episode offers practical insights for educators and students alike.

Whether you’re an instructor looking to inspire critical thinking or a student eager to engage meaningfully with the political landscape, this conversation provides tools to adapt and thrive in an ever-changing field.

 What We Talk About
Here’s what’s covered in the episode:

• Creating Respectful Classroom Environments:
  • Establishing ground rules and encouraging diverse perspectives.
  • Addressing the politics of language and challenging assumptions about students’ backgrounds. 
• Engaging Constructively with Students:
  • Reinforcing critical thinking and fact-based arguments.
  • Using historical and comparative examples to de-escalate controversial topics.
• Combating Misinformation:
  • Teaching fact-checking and data analysis skills. 
  • Exploring foundational concepts like democracy and authoritarianism to contextualize current events.
• The Role of AI in Education:
  • Balancing the use of AI for research with the importance of original thought and skill development.
  • Rethinking assignments to promote critical analysis over AI-generated content.
• Fostering Trust and Credibility:
  • Encouraging students to place current issues in historical perspective.
  • Highlighting the importance of diverse demographics in understanding political systems.
• Adapting to Evolving Political Landscapes:
  • Structuring curricula to cover foundational knowledge before addressing current examples.
  • Using historical parallels and international perspectives to connect with contemporary issues.

About the Authors
Dr. Christina Bejarano
Dr. Bejarano is a Professor of Political Science at Texas Women’s University and coauthor of The Enduring Democracy. Her research focuses on the intersection of gender, race, and political behavior in the U.S., with a particular emphasis on the contributions of women and ethnic minorities.

Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
Dr. Gaynor is an Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and coauthor of Congress Explained: Representation and Lawmaking in the First Branch. With experience on Capitol Hill and expertise in congressional leadership and institutional reform, she brings a wealth of knowledge to the classroom.

Eric Langenbacher
Eric is a Teaching Professor and Director of the Honors Program at Georgetown University, as well as the author of Comparative Politics: Mapping Institutions, Power, and Legitimacy. His global perspective and extensive teaching experience enrich his approach to political science education.

This episode brought to you by Sage Vantage. Learn more at collegepublishing.sagepub.com/vantage.

Transcript

00:00:10:17 - 00:00:33:01
Allison Critcher, Sage Faculty Partner for Political Science
Welcome to the Sage College Publishing podcast. I'm Allison Critcher, your host for today's roundtable discussion about political science. As a Sage Faculty Partner for Poli Sci, a comparative political scientist and a political science educator, I am especially excited to be here and to facilitate this discussion with some amazing political scientists. Today, our theme is tips for teaching in today's Political Science Classroom.

00:00:33:03 - 00:01:01:22
Allison Critcher
But we're not just going to talk about how to teach it. We're going to talk about how to teach it effectively in this dynamic and at times challenging environment, from navigating polarization to combating misinformation, we'll discuss how we as educators can adapt to a field that is changing as quickly as the world around us. In addition, we'll share practical strategies, fresh perspectives, all to help educators inspire and empower their students to think critically and engage meaningfully within the political landscape.

00:01:01:24 - 00:01:27:21
Allison Critcher
With me for this conversation today. Our three incredible Sage authors, each bringing their own unique experience and expertise to the conversation. First, we have Doctor Cristina Bejarano. She's a professor of political science at Texas Women's University and coauthor of Enduring Democracy. Christina's research focuses on how gender, race, and political behavior intersect in the US political landscape with a particular emphasis on the vital contributions of women and ethnic minorities.

00:01:27:23 - 00:01:59:05
Allison Critcher
Next, we have Doctor SoRelle Gaynor. She is an assistant professor at the University of Virginia's Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, and coauthor of Congress Explained: Representation and Lawmaking in the First Branch. With deep insights into congressional leadership, political parties, and institutional reform, as well as real world experience working on Capitol Hill. SoRelle brings a wealth of knowledge to this discussion. And Eric Langenbacher, a teaching professor and director of honors program at Georgetown University and the author of Comparative Politics: Mapping Institutions, Power, and Legitimacy.

00:01:59:07 - 00:02:23:26
Allison Critcher
With his extensive background in American and comparative politics, not to mention his experience teaching and lecturing around the globe, Eric provides a truly global perspective on today's topics. Welcome to the podcast, everyone. I'm so glad you're here. And today, before we take a deep dive into our discussion questions, I think now would be a great time for each of you to tell our listeners what inspired you to pursue teaching political science. We'll start with you, Christina.

00:02:28:00 - 00:02:53:23
Dr. Christina Bejarano, Sage Author and Professor of Political Science at Texas Women's University
Great. Thank you for having me today. So what inspired me to start teaching is that I was actually a psychology major in undergrad, but I kept getting, working within politics and learning about real world politics and wanting to get involved. And then, my psychology professor said, you're supposed to be all about psychology. And I was like, well, I, I still have this draw.

00:02:53:23 - 00:03:12:00
Christina Bejarano
So I bring that that unique a personal interest in what's going on in politics. And then I also bring the psychology background to be able to try to explain to people how do we process the political world, especially when it gets so crazy.

00:03:12:02 - 00:03:14:20
Allison Critcher
SoRelle?

00:03:14:22 - 00:03:43:29
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor, Sage Author and Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia's Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy
Thank you, for having me. This is, I'm excited about this conversation. So I think, like, the recruitment literature would, show I was encouraged by a professor in undergrad to get a PhD. And I was, you know, like Christina, I was in a different subfield. I was a history major, and, I was, I studied American history, and I took a break before, going back to graduate school.

00:03:43:29 - 00:04:07:00
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
And I worked on Capitol Hill and worked in think tanks in the DC area. And I realized that what I learned and what I was experiencing were totally different. And so that really motivated me to go back to get a political science PhD. And, still is, you know, the basis of not only how I teach, but a lot of my research questions.

00:04:07:00 - 00:04:17:20
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
And, so, yeah, a mix of, encouragement, as well as just kind of real world interest.

00:04:17:22 - 00:04:20:23
Allison Critcher
What about you, Eric?

00:04:20:25 - 00:04:50:27
Eric Langenbacher, Sage Author and Teaching Professor and Director of Honors Program at Georgetown University
Well, you know, I, I read once that being a teacher means that you are a lifelong student. And I've always been interested in the world. Maybe it was because of James Bond movies that I was obsessed with growing up or something like that. So I think that my curiosity to try to understand other cultures, to understand other political systems, is really what motivated me to get into teaching in the first place, and makes me excited to be in the classroom.

00:04:51:00 - 00:04:55:22
Eric Langenbacher
Well, almost every day. Some days it's a little harder than others, but, yeah.

00:04:55:24 - 00:05:24:18
Allison Critcher
Thank you all for sharing. I think it's clear how much kind of passion, purpose, real world experience that you bring into the classroom, and I'm really excited to see how that has translated into what you do. As we kind of start this discussion today to kick things off, I want to turn our focus to a topic that's incredibly relevant for educators today, and that's navigating the challenges and rewards of teaching a subject as kind of polarizing as political science can be.

00:05:24:20 - 00:05:50:21
Allison Critcher
It's no secret today's classroom can be a mirror of kind of the broader societal tensions that we see in politics, which can make it both super rewarding and a challenging space for students and educators alike. So I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. First, on how we create a classroom atmosphere that is conducive to kind of respectful and open dialog on polarizing issues.

00:05:50:23 - 00:05:53:29
Allison Critcher
Whoever wants to go first.

00:05:54:01 - 00:06:18:09
Christina Bejarano
I'll go first. Well, I, I realized I needed to start each semester by going over some ground rules with the students and to also, warn them that the class was going to include some controversial topics, some heated discussions throughout the semester, and even just starting with our definition of politics, politics is all about conflict. So we're not going to get away from conflict.

00:06:18:09 - 00:06:40:09
Christina Bejarano
We just needed to be respectful of each other when we were going to talk about, heated topics and then also, encourage different perspectives from them. So not just bringing their own, personal experiences, but, different perspectives of other groups.

00:06:40:12 - 00:07:09:17
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
Like Christine, I also, you know, we start kind of with some ground rules. And I think part of it is just sort of mirroring your language and, I think for a lot of students, there is some hesitation to talk about these things because they don't want to offend their classmates. And so by kind of setting like, hey, this is a safe area and I and you should know that your classmates are and you in turn should be respectful, right?

00:07:09:19 - 00:07:38:12
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
That if somebody says you know, the wrong, word for something or refers to a group in maybe a, you know, inappropriate way, that it's not necessarily a personal attack and that we as a class can talk about the politics of language. Because I think that's a big part about encouraging discussion is just making them feel comfortable speaking out without, you know, feeling like they might offend someone.

00:07:38:14 - 00:08:19:03
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
At the same time. Of course, your job as the educator is to step in when somebody says something wrong and or inappropriate. And so I practice saying like, hey, I'm going to stop you there. Let's try and rephrase that. I literally look in the mirror because it is hard to kind of really step in. And then from my side, I think it's really important to go into the classroom and to go into interactions with students, understanding and, and truly believing that they have their own ideologies and ideal systems for reasons that we may not know.

00:08:19:03 - 00:08:44:01
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
You know, I don't think it's fair to think that every student believes what they believe because their parent, that's what their parents tell them at the dinner table, right? So I, I try to think, you know, and I am always like, very surprised and really blown away by the things I read in their writing, you know, that students come to these belief systems sometimes out of, you know, theoretical motivations.

00:08:44:01 - 00:09:16:07
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
And so I really try to myself challenge any assumptions I may have about a student's background or partisanship or ideology and how they got there. And I think by treating their own viewpoints with mutual respect, can, you know, they can feel that, right? They can feel that when, when they're viewpoint, either one on one or in a classroom is being received, with interest or, you know, disdain.

00:09:16:07 - 00:09:28:00
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
And so I really it's a lot of me challenging my own beliefs about them. I think that kind of helps that environment.

00:09:28:02 - 00:09:51:06
Eric Langenbacher
I mean, I agree with all these points. The way that I proceed is I say, you know, I don't care where you're coming from. I don't care what is motivating your perspective? The important thing in a political science environment is to always have evidence, right? So if your perspective can be backed up with data, if your perspective can be backed up with respect worthy arguments, then we can have a discussion.

00:09:51:06 - 00:10:11:19
Eric Langenbacher
But if you're just going to, you know, mouth off, if you're just going to sound off, on whatever topic that that's not acceptable. And I think the students usually respect that, and they have to put the work in to find the evidence to back up what they're what they're saying. And the other thing that I say to is, you know, if you're going to derive a hypothesis from your worldview, great.

00:10:11:20 - 00:10:32:17
Eric Langenbacher
I mean, you have to care about what you're researching. You have to care about what you're debating or anything like that, but you also have to have the honesty and the courage to accept that evidence might not back up what you think and what you believe. And sometimes that's hard for students because you know, who wants evidence that that contradicts their worldview or something like that.

00:10:32:20 - 00:10:44:25
Eric Langenbacher
But I think that there's a lot of learning that comes out of, basically applying political science methods to everything that we're doing.

00:10:44:28 - 00:11:15:09
Allison Critcher
That's great. Yeah, I think you guys are those are awesome ideas. So the next kind of thing I wanted to ask you about along those lines is, what specific strategies help you engage constructively with students? You know, you've had these ground rules. You've talked to them, you're respecting them. But inevitably there's tension, right? And there's that moment of how do I de-escalate?

00:11:15:09 - 00:11:30:15
Allison Critcher
Or it's like, I don't want the escalation. So kind of what are your strategies to help students engage constructively without that kind of escalation, to kind of de-escalate? So it becomes a really productive discourse.

00:11:30:18 - 00:11:58:24
Christina Bejarano
I'll go first again. And similar to what Eric mentioned is I often we often have to remind our students, that we're using we're doing a social science, topic, a field, and they need to think, use critical thinking skills. They need to have facts, they need to have arguments. And they can't just come to each discussion and only rely on their emotions or their personal experiences.

00:11:58:26 - 00:12:18:04
Christina Bejarano
Because I had this issue the very first semester I was teaching, when I would start to tell them about things that happened during the civil rights movement, and they were like, well, that didn't happen because it didn't happen to my family. And I'm like, hold on a second. So I was just having to, like, retool and step back and say, okay, these are facts.

00:12:18:04 - 00:12:32:06
Christina Bejarano
If you want to challenge it, give me some facts, give me some critical thinking arguments to back it up. And we can't all just use our personal experiences to have these discussions.

00:12:32:09 - 00:12:54:19
Eric Langenbacher
I mean, what I would also add is, you know, sometimes there's content specific or class specific. So, I don't have as many issues as some of my colleagues do because I'm a comparativist. Right. And, when you have a, I mean, most of the students, at Georgetown are, you know, us, you know, students.

00:12:54:21 - 00:13:19:00
Eric Langenbacher
And so when I'm talking about something that's kind of virtual in Germany, for instance, or in Japan, I mean, it doesn't resonate with them the same degree. And sometimes I use it as a strategy. I mean, I will I will bring up or I'll bring up historical examples because, you know, frankly, the French Revolution isn't, as divisive or polarizing today as it was and, I don't know, 1789 or, you know, 1830, when it was still within kind of people's memories.

00:13:19:00 - 00:13:37:03
Eric Langenbacher
Right. And like, I find that to be a very effective strategy because there are obviously parallels with the past. There are parallels with other countries. And you know, students will make the connection right to what's going on in the United States today or in other countries that they care about. But I don't have to. So, I don't know.

00:13:37:03 - 00:13:47:19
Eric Langenbacher
I find that to be a kind of oblique technique to deal with potentially controversial issues, but to kind of de-escalate.

00:13:47:21 - 00:14:12:01
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
I, approach it very similarly, both using, a lot of historical examples as well as teaching them how to find and access raw data. Right. So if we're going to talk about the 2020 election and why it was not stolen, I will show you how to find a voter file. Right. And so really like showing them these resources.

00:14:12:01 - 00:14:42:09
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
And we can talk more about, you know, about that sort of how to combat misinformation that way. And then the other thing that I do or I try to do is, you know, provide them with kind of these, like entries into maybe controversial topics through a theoretical kind of back door. So, I mean, a lot of students sign up for, especially American politics classes because they do want to talk about political issues.

00:14:42:11 - 00:15:04:17
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
And so instead of having a talk about, you know, abortion, right, we can talk about federalism and differences among the states and the implications of federalism in the American society. And they get to choose the example. You know, I often have like, all right, here's three things we can talk about. Do we want to use education policy, health care policy.

00:15:04:17 - 00:15:40:27
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
Right. And they get to choose and it's what they are comfortable with. But by providing this sort of, you know, Jeffersonian versus Madison, an argument, they have language that makes it a little easier for them to talk about controversial topics. And like Eric said, then they also get to flex that muscle and put the pieces together themselves. And I think that is, you know, the point of taking a political science course.

00:15:41:00 - 00:16:05:23
Allison Critcher
Right. I think those are just great strategies and tips. And so you mentioned about misinformation. So I think, you know this, we can transition kind of into this idea of kind of how has today's context of kind of increased misinformation and feedback leads information bubbles, coupled with that low public trust impacted the way you teach? Or maybe it's changed the way you teach.

00:16:05:23 - 00:16:14:26
Allison Critcher
If you've been teaching a long time, kind of how is that how are you navigating that space? That can be really kind of challenging today.

00:16:14:29 - 00:16:44:17
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
I, spend, you know, any time I start and insert a new, you know, section on a new institution or, you know, a new and this is for not my non, methods courses, obviously, this is, you know, part of people who teach methods, but I have students bring their computer to class and we explore census data, we explore open secrets or FEC data.

00:16:44:20 - 00:17:21:29
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
How to find a document on congress.gov how to look up a hearing transcript. Because, you know, I have always taught with social media around and I think sort of this, TikTok, Instagram, infographics that go viral. I do think that they can be helpful. But I try to teach students, you know, that the difference between them, who will walk away with a political science degree, or at least political science classes and someone else on the internet, is they can fact check they know where these data, where they can find these data points, they can use these data points to critically think.

00:17:21:29 - 00:17:42:24
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
And so, I use a lot of, you know, sort of this entry level data, this publicly available data, you know, of course, publicly available for now. And, and that's also, something, you know, that you can talk about students with, but and then I assign these short data papers like find an interesting data point, you know, three paragraphs.

00:17:42:24 - 00:18:11:12
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
Why is it interesting? Was it unexpected to you? And that's, kind of to me, I think one way to get around larger misinformation is like, you can fact check it yourself, right? And especially for things we see on social media. And then of course, part of that's also talking about the differences between the New York Times and a blog post.

00:18:11:12 - 00:18:42:18
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
Right. But I do find that students have better media literacy today, like what a legitimate website is compared to, you know, maybe when I was in teaching in grad school or certainly talking to maybe my parents, but I think it's the sort of TikTok videos and Instagram infographics that is kind of where I focus my fact checking abilities.

00:18:42:21 - 00:19:11:22
Christina Bejarano
Have, can also add that the unusual situation we find ourselves in, what we're teaching today, actually helps me remember that we have to step back and really explain foundational concepts of politics, including like democracy. And we may have taught it previously. I know I have, where we just have the assumption everybody wants democracy, everybody's going to support democracy.

00:19:11:22 - 00:19:50:23
Christina Bejarano
And now students are questioning everything about our political system. So, including telling them how they where they can fact check, but also just making sure we're all, understanding what is a democracy, what is an authoritarian government? And then then try to explain now what's going on in our political system today. So it is I guess the pro is it's encouraging me to think about stepping back at the con is we have to now, like, really explain in and detail all of these foundational concepts that we would assume people wouldn't question.

00:19:50:23 - 00:19:54:13
Christina Bejarano
But now we're questioning everything.

00:19:54:16 - 00:20:18:07
Eric Langenbacher
I mean, I would just add that, you know, sometimes I feel like I'm a journalism professor instead of a political scientist because I have to teach and really double down on basic journalistic methods about, you know, how you factcheck and how you verify sources. And if you find two online sources that are in disagreement on a data point, how are you going to evaluate that and corroborate one over the other?

00:20:18:09 - 00:20:38:24
Eric Langenbacher
You know, one of the other things that I, that I do, too, increasingly, is I'm trying to give students the skills to evaluate, you know, where the information is coming from. So, you know, usually governmental sources can be trusted, at least in democracies, over, other sources, international organizations can be trusted. You know, what I think is interesting?

00:20:38:24 - 00:20:54:19
Eric Langenbacher
Because there's been all this talk about like the decline of traditional media and stuff like that, but I actually think that they're going to become more important because they are doing a lot of the vetting and the fact checking, so you can trust the new York Times, at least they're reporting. I mean, if not, they're kind of like, op eds necessarily.

00:20:54:19 - 00:21:16:07
Eric Langenbacher
Right? You know, you can trust I love The Economist. So I'm like, go to the economist. One of the things that I tell students is, you know, maybe look at international sources because there's so much in the English language these days, not just the BBC, but you can go to Deutsch and L.A, for instance, or France 24 and see what they're saying about, a given, or a given issue or event and that kind of thing.

00:21:16:07 - 00:21:32:18
Eric Langenbacher
So, I don't know, I feel like I spend a lot more time on those kind of logistics than I used to, but I think that it pays off with the students, and it increases their ability to do that fact checking in to find, the best information that's out there.

00:21:32:21 - 00:22:07:07
Allison Critcher
I think that's great. I know in my own context, like y'all have said, you end up teaching a lot of those foundational and even journalistic things of what's a good source. And so with that in mind, kind of how do you help students evaluate and engage with information? I know you've mentioned, like teaching them how to fact check and find those primary sources of the data and understanding the difference between an opinion page and a first page and, you know, but how do they kind of look for those, like online sources and how maybe I fits into that kind of whole picture as you're helping them to kind of navigate

00:22:07:07 - 00:22:08:24
Allison Critcher
the space?

00:22:08:26 - 00:22:34:08
Eric Langenbacher
Well, I have some, some thoughts on AI more generally. I mean, I feel like we've had so many conversations about this as, a department or as a larger faculty at this university. And, I think that, you know, every professor is going to have, their own, policy. So my policy is that I'm fine with them using AI ChatGPT or whatever for research purposes, if that makes it easier.

00:22:34:08 - 00:22:50:00
Eric Langenbacher
But then I have to say, but you, you have to verify everything because we know that the chat GPT has some problems. So, you know, I'm, I'm almost like what's the point? I mean, you can use it, but you still have to verify anyway. So, you know, why don't you just do it the kind of old fashioned way.

00:22:50:03 - 00:23:08:10
Eric Langenbacher
But I have an absolute prohibition on them using any kind of AI for the actual writing. And what I also try to do is I try to use their own self-interest to motivate them to do that. So, for instance, I do some calculations in my big lecture class for comparative politics. And then there's a paper where they have to apply the calculations.

00:23:08:16 - 00:23:26:02
Eric Langenbacher
Then they have to do the calculations on the final exam. So it's an in class final exam. I literally make them with a pencil and a calculator do these kind of basic calculations. Right. So I tell them I said if you don't do the calculations yourself in the paper, you're not going to know them that well. And you won't do as well on the final exam.

00:23:26:04 - 00:23:44:00
Eric Langenbacher
So I think you can also use kind of student self-interest to, you know, learn what they need to learn. And, and not I don't want to say abuse but, you know, not overuse these often very useful but sometimes not technologies.

00:23:44:02 - 00:24:06:07
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
My take on, you know, AI and kind of like where it fits into fighting misinformation in the classroom is very similar to Eric in that, I, you know, if you want to research with it, I suppose it's fine, but then it's going to be really hard to write because you won't have actually read or done the thinking yourself.

00:24:06:09 - 00:24:44:23
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
And then, you know, similarly, the personal motivation that I tried to kind of embed on them is, okay, sure, maybe I will take over certain aspects of the workforce. What is I not going to take over, and how can you then set yourself apart? If you as a student have used AI, then you know, for every stage of the research and writing probe, probe process, then you know, what is it going to be like when you're at your job and you're asked a question or asked to solve a problem, you know, that's what would set you apart.

00:24:44:23 - 00:25:08:03
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
And so I kind of I have a similar take, you know, not for writing and not for idea generation. And again, if you're using it for research, it's going to make idea generation more difficult. So just thinking through like what's the one thing that you can do. You can come up with original ideas. You can write in your own prose, you can develop your own sort of way of talking.

00:25:08:03 - 00:25:30:13
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
And in the same way as, you know, if you're using it, using AI to look at a data source or to go through a spreadsheet for you, it's going to find what everyone else has found, right? But you yourself can look through open secrets and find something really interesting about who's donating to who. And you have a really cool paper or a really cool research agenda.

00:25:30:16 - 00:25:49:02
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
And so, you know, I, I'm very similar to Eric. I don't really get the point because you have to fact check and do all the extra work on the back end anyways, but it's also just you in college to flex a muscle to learn a skill. And, and that's kind of, you know, what you should be doing with your time.

00:25:49:02 - 00:26:05:08
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
So I think, that is like a conversation I have at the start of the semester. And I, you know, of course, as we all, who knows if it sticks, but, that's kind of my approach to those to sort of have those two things meet.

00:26:05:11 - 00:26:33:22
Christina Bejarano
I, just a small addition, as I've also, I think with AI, it's also having us retool how we do papers, how we assign exams. I'm having to rethink my exam questions, format everything. Because it is really noticeable when the students use AI to, just take whole answers and copy and paste and put them in their exam.

00:26:33:25 - 00:27:01:02
Christina Bejarano
And then I also know, because we're our own textbook authors, we know, and they just take the information from the book. But, trying to rethink the questions, to have them more critically analyze, some exam questions and think about, they like to talk about personal experiences, but think about how personal experiences can try to provide examples to answer these questions that I, I have them ponder in the exam.

00:27:01:02 - 00:27:19:27
Christina Bejarano
And so that's again having us rethink how we are approaching how we want to test. And, even give grades to our to our students and have them use the information that they're learning in our books.

00:27:20:00 - 00:27:41:17
Allison Critcher
That definitely. And I think one of the things that y'all have also mentioned is, and I'd be interested to see kind of how you're doing it. You talk about like the fundamentals and explaining basic things about democracy and things that maybe in the past have been taken for granted. But this idea of kind of what roles do you see kind of trust and credibility as you're teaching and teaching students these things?

00:27:41:17 - 00:28:04:28
Allison Critcher
Kind of how does that help in or help students kind of understand democracy specifically? Kind of how does fostering the skills that you're talking about developing with your students prepare them to engage thoughtfully with kind of the broader issues in political science and then outside of the classroom, when they do go out and that work for that workforce and in their personal life, kind of what does that look like?

00:28:05:01 - 00:28:32:06
Christina Bejarano
I can jump in and start, thinking about the focus that, my textbook of enduring democracy kind of, relies on is thinking about encouraging our students to become educated systems citizen. Sorry. There two paths. And that's, thinking about placing our current issues and controversies in a historical perspective. So they can also think about what's happened in the past.

00:28:32:08 - 00:28:59:18
Christina Bejarano
How have people experienced similar issues, and then also to think about how changing demographics and increasing diversity currently, how does that impacting some of our controversies and issues. So taking a step back and relate it back to history and then also critically engage what's going on in our current political environment. So thinking about democracy, okay. What is what do we say in the Constitution?

00:28:59:18 - 00:29:34:18
Christina Bejarano
How is it working today? And, being able to think historically, currently, and then also about the diverse community and how it may not be applying fully our democracy to everybody in the population. And I think that helps them to also sort of put, put a political science hat on and, and be able to say, well, I understand how to place it in a historical perspective, what's going on today, but then also how to explain what's going on, in the future.

00:29:34:18 - 00:29:48:02
Christina Bejarano
So kind of like take a step back, take a step forward and then explain what's going on. Currently. And, I think that that helps, make more sense of what's going on.

00:29:48:04 - 00:30:14:01
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
We took a similar approach in our new and, in the second edition, we now have these sort of like then, now pullouts. So, you know, students say, oh, Congress is so polarized. We have these examples of periods where it was similarly polarized, where it was not. And then we talk about the institutional or behavioral reasons why these periods were like that.

00:30:14:01 - 00:30:46:01
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
And it allows them to. Yeah, understand sort of the current moment and where and orient themselves as well as think of, okay, if we go down this path, you know, what is the future look like? Another thing that we talk a lot about in our textbook is like periods of congressional or institutional reform, which I think is certainly more relevant than we thought we than we thought it was when we started out, you know, rewriting the second edition last year.

00:30:46:04 - 00:31:14:13
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
But, you know, as we kind of grapple with like, well, well, what does a more responsive Congress look like? I'm obviously very glad we included these topics and conversations in the textbook because there are, you know, like we have been saying about other factors of teaching political science, a lot of it is just giving students the tools to understand, to evaluate and then think about what is coming next or what could come next.

00:31:14:15 - 00:31:25:14
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
And so very similar in that we use his history as, example in a way to orient.

00:31:25:16 - 00:31:51:12
Eric Langenbacher
Right. So for some reason, I keep thinking back to one of the best books that I ever read by Hannah Arendt called The Human Condition. And in that book she said that what she was trying to do was to think what we're doing. And so that's what I try to do in my classes all the time to, you know, so we talk about trust for instance, which, you know, as a comparativist has gotten a lot of, a lot of attention over the years.

00:31:51:14 - 00:32:17:16
Eric Langenbacher
And I try to get them to think what it would be like to not have trust in society. I get them to think, well, what happens if you have too much trust in society? So I think that just thinking what we're doing, fostering critical thinking skills, makes the classroom better and, and also sets them up for citizenship, in the future as well.

00:32:17:19 - 00:32:41:10
Allison Critcher
Absolutely. Kind of as we kind of move on in the discussion, I'm really interested in kind of talking about the challenges of teaching a subject that is really constantly evolving. That's the thing about political science. You guys have talked about the history and reflecting back and saying now and, and what it was and kind of showing that, parallel or, or lessons learned or things that we know.

00:32:41:12 - 00:33:06:03
Allison Critcher
So specifically, how do you, approach adapting your curriculum to reflect kind of this ongoing political and global developments and in this world that's ever changing. And what happened yesterday really could change the way that we think about an institution or the way something has always been or will be in the future.

00:33:06:06 - 00:33:32:02
Eric Langenbacher
I mean, maybe I'll jump in and I mean, both of my colleagues have made this point before, and I would just reiterate it that it's really about, you know, starting with the fundamental concepts and, you know, exploring definitions of democracy, for instance, exploring definitions of the state and things like that. It's about understanding, how these things played out in history and then bringing in kind of more contemporary examples where appropriate.

00:33:32:02 - 00:33:57:07
Eric Langenbacher
But, you know, sometimes the contemporary examples can be, you know, as we've said, too polarizing. And so, I don't know, I, I find myself talking more about historical parallels or, things happening in other countries, these kind of like oblique references and then get the students to like, go to the finish line and to, projected to contemporary issues, especially in this country.

00:33:57:09 - 00:34:19:21
Christina Bejarano
And to add to that, I, I've noticed I teach the lecture twice a week. So that first day when we're talking about a new topic each week, like if we're talking about, Congress, okay, now we're going to go through, like Eric said, the foundation. What does it say in our Constitution? How is Congress set up in the U.S?

00:34:19:24 - 00:34:43:10
Christina Bejarano
And then, the second class is all about interrogating that and say, well, how is it working today? What are bringing in some current examples? Are they being are they being productive? How are they dealing with issues today? And I think that helps the students because they want to like start talking about that. That first day.

00:34:43:10 - 00:35:03:09
Christina Bejarano
We're like, hold on, let's make sure everybody's on the same page and understand how our U.S. Congress is supposed to work. Second day. Okay. Now what's really going on? Same thing with the presidency especially, how is the president supposed to have, certain powers? How are they supposed to be checked? What is the Constitution say? That first class.

00:35:03:12 - 00:35:16:02
Christina Bejarano
Second class? Well, how is our current, president challenging all of those, conceived notions of what the president supposed to do?

00:35:16:05 - 00:35:53:29
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
Yeah, I think I would just, you know, be remiss not to say that what I think is different than teaching in prior years or even during the first, Trump administration, is that our education institution has changed very rapidly. And I certainly worry about, you know, students who feel emboldened to, you know, try and get professors that they feel are political or disagree with them, you know, removed from the classroom entirely.

00:35:53:29 - 00:36:16:04
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
Right. And, you know, I think that that is an elephant in the room, especially as I think about this upcoming semester. And I think that you know, what my colleagues have said is, is the way to approach that. Right, is like, these are the facts of our this is what our founding fathers wrote. This is what their intentions were.

00:36:16:04 - 00:36:45:03
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
Let's read some Federalist Papers. Let's talk about, you know, the goals of creating this democracy. And then, you know, that's when you can jump in to the current events. And so, I think it sounds like our, our, our syllabi are similar and that you have the historical or the foundational pieces, accompanied with, you know, maybe, an Atlantic Magazine article or something like that, and then you let them put the pieces together themselves.

00:36:45:03 - 00:37:11:24
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
But I think that it's kind of a new territory where we're also not sure totally how secure our institutions are and the support we can get from them. And so I think by having the students do the do the hard work themselves, that is not only good for us, but it's what you know, it's the skill that they should be learning as well.

00:37:11:26 - 00:37:39:29
Eric Langenbacher
Sorry, can I just jump in one more time? Because I thought of another technique that, I've come to use more often when I'm trying to talk about a controversial issue, let's say executive overreach, I'll use an unexpected example, that that might even be a little, you know, unexpectedly provocative. So, for instance, with executive orders, you know, I often go back to Obama's DACA order, which I would say probably 90% of students, at least in my classes, agree with.

00:37:40:01 - 00:37:58:22
Eric Langenbacher
But I make a point about how, you know, this was controversial. This was executive overreach. Even if you morally or from a policy perspective, agree with the content of that executive order. Right. It still was, you know, problematic from a variety of perspectives and kind of a precedent. And the students don't expect that they don't see it coming.

00:37:58:26 - 00:38:17:13
Eric Langenbacher
And it really gets them to think about, you know, perhaps more recent examples of executive overreach.

00:38:17:15 - 00:38:51:07
Allison Critcher
So I'm excited to kind of the answer to this question. I'm going to ask you for a little bit of like your secret sauce. What is kind of the when you're thinking about sources for creativity, where do you think students are or kind of what are those, those resources or sources that provide kind of accurate or trustworthy information on those, like newer things as they're developing that you feel confident sending students to as they're kind of navigating kind of how to answer these questions based on the theoretical kind of background you've given them.

00:38:51:09 - 00:39:18:18
Christina Bejarano
I'll jump in. I think we we've been I think Eric and Sheryl have mentioned a couple of them and they'll, they'll repeat them. But I include reports like from a Pew Research Center, so they can also see facts and, and we can interrogate these topics and public opinion surveys and polls like Gallup. I show them Gallup all the time, especially to show how the, the public opinion.

00:39:18:20 - 00:39:43:10
Christina Bejarano
And this is also something that we include in the textbook. So, so what have how has opinion changed over time? Especially where we, we might have thought, like, for example, same sex marriage was where has the support changed? How has it evolved? How do we think about it today as a topic? And then also like updated information, like from the center for American Women in Politics.

00:39:43:10 - 00:40:12:20
Christina Bejarano
So to think about, like how many women are in different levels of government, how has that changed over time? So definitely, showing them where they can find more information from all of these sources, but then also how we can tie it in to talk about the changes over time and then how, how, people's opinions are currently over some of these big issues.

00:40:12:22 - 00:40:40:17
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
I love using open secrets and fec.gov. I especially I, I teach my, American intro to American government through a lens of power and, they love that resource. I use a lot of census data to talk about, you know, representation. And of course, you can think how that pairs with FEC data as well. Right.

00:40:40:19 - 00:41:10:18
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
And then, yeah, a lot of Pew Research reports, Congressional Research Service reports are really great. You know, little three page white papers that give an overview of, of history of a policy issue. But generally I try to, assign a academic article or chapter along with a, magazine. Stories are great. I use a lot of The Atlantic, The New Yorker.

00:41:10:20 - 00:41:19:27
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
And then, you know, we spend time in class looking at a data sources, kind of. If I could have a perfect, a perfect day on the syllabus.

00:41:19:29 - 00:41:51:21
Eric Langenbacher
I'm all about getting the students to sample different sources. Right. So, you know, look at what The New York Times is saying. Look at what the Heritage Foundation has published on something and, you know, try to take all perspectives into account and for them to learn how, once again, to evaluate different sources, if, if there's conflict, or contradictions in the sources, to try to find methods to kind of referee, all of that.

00:41:51:23 - 00:42:10:07
Eric Langenbacher
And then also the point that I made before I would come back to which is look at international sources as well. I mean, my go to is almost always the economist, because I think they are almost always right when it comes to, to things. And, you know, they don't have the obvious kind of bias that some kind of, US based sources might have.

00:42:10:09 - 00:42:28:06
Allison Critcher
Just a side question for me. I was like, hey, are there any kind of podcast or non kind of traditional sources that are more like podcasts, social media, any places like that or sources like that that you're using? You find your regularly telling your students to check out or maybe assigning for different topics.

00:42:28:08 - 00:42:53:22
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
I always encourage students to sign up for a newsletter. Whether that's the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, my Congress class, I encourage them to sign up for Punchbowl News or, you know, good old Politico playbook. And then there is a great podcast. It's kind of old, but it's called the Peanut Butter Wars. So if you teach the bureaucracy, it's about how peanut butter was regulated in the 70s.

00:42:53:24 - 00:43:19:09
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
And so I'm trying to get better about listening to, you know, more podcasts like that because I think, I think students like podcasts. But, you know, if they listen, I say either sign up for our newsletter or something like The daily, you know, so you're plugged in and you can write tie in current events a little bit better.

00:43:19:11 - 00:43:49:02
Eric Langenbacher
I sometimes, I'm sorry, I sometimes encourage students to if they're really into podcasts to go to, you know, how would I put it. Respect worthy organizations. Right. Like, the Atlantic Council, Brookings, for a lot of my classes, the German Marshall Fund of the US has excellent podcasts. So, once again, to use the kind of reputation of the, organization as, as a mark of quality, I mean, of course, I love Ezra Klein.

00:43:49:02 - 00:43:57:20
Eric Langenbacher
So, you know, I often will direct them to, New York Times podcasts as well.

00:43:57:22 - 00:44:23:10
Christina Bejarano
I was just also going to mention sort of like that, I am taking notes about podcasts and newsletters because I don't do that with my students. But, it's also a weird time where we're also trying to talk to our students about how to take in these new sources, but not do too much, so, like how to remain sane and, how to not be fearful.

00:44:23:10 - 00:44:45:17
Christina Bejarano
And so it's also trying not to overwhelm the students, but then also having them try to take in some of that information. So it's, it's again, it's a weird time to, to say where can you go to find information that's not going to get you, doomscrolling. But how to be able to then talk about it in class and not have everybody say, oh, I can't watch the news anymore.

00:44:45:17 - 00:44:53:04
Christina Bejarano
So, that may be another question we, we tackle, but it is a is a hard situation right now.

00:44:53:06 - 00:45:22:12
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
Yeah. And I'll just say on that point, I, I personally say, okay, these are going to be my niche areas. This is where I'm going to really invest a lot of my energy to reading about every day. And then there's some that I'm going to just, you know, read the initial article on the main page. Right. And so I kind of encourage them, if there's a policy area 2 or 3 that you're interested in, right, that that's what you can focus on.

00:45:22:12 - 00:45:48:28
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
Because I agree, it's just one there's a lot going on. There's too much going on. But also there's just a paradox of choice out there. Right. If you're just listening to podcasts all day, you're going to or, you know, Doomscrolling on Reddit, right? You are right. We've all been there. So I think have encouraging them to kind of find their niche in their policy areas of interest as well as and that's kind of why I like the newsletters.

00:45:48:28 - 00:46:19:23
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
Right. Like the Washington Post one gives you like seven stories you should know. Right? And then you read them and you can go further if you'd like. So I agree it's definitely about finding that balance of like, you don't need to read everything, and I'm not going to expect you to know everything that's going on. And it's kind of like you can rely on your classmates for that to.

00:46:19:25 - 00:46:39:00
Allison Critcher
I, I love that idea. And I would love to hear Christina's, kind of talking about. And so you mentioned it to how to allow the student space to for self-care. I get that question a lot. I have my students, they listen to Up First by NPR. They have to listen to it so many times a week. It's ten minutes.

00:46:39:00 - 00:46:57:21
Allison Critcher
It's no commentary. It's just stories. Right? And teaching that bifurcation between political science and political belief, which you all have talked about making that a clear kind of divide, helping in that too. So that but what are you encouraging your students doing when they come? I've had several since they come up to me like, I'm just so sad.

00:46:57:21 - 00:47:31:27
Allison Critcher
It just it breaks my heart or I'm really scared. I got that a lot in the spring semester particularly, I'm scared for my family, you know, and that it's overseas or I'm scared for my friends that are immigrant, like, all of these things that they are internalizing and digesting, digesting. But they're people and, and so, like, how do we, kind of reach out and we encourage your humanity and teach them how to, like, have that self-care moment of maybe you do need to step back or what are kind of the strategies y'all are using or encouraging.

00:47:32:03 - 00:47:38:04
Allison Critcher
I'd love to hear kind of how you're navigating that.

00:47:38:06 - 00:48:01:17
Christina Bejarano
Thanks. Well, Allison, I, I think just talking about how it's also hard for us as instructors that helps the students realize that they're not alone. And to think about mental health. Right. Sharing mental health resources, also thinking about I, adding, I know this is hard to talk about. Trying to end on a positive note each day as well.

00:48:01:17 - 00:48:38:06
Christina Bejarano
And, to start on the positive note and then on a positive note, which is kind of hard, but to not just have them feel defeated after we talk about current events and then send them on their way, but trying to figure out, okay, let's think about, just something good to talk about. Let's think about how we're going to process this information, try to tie it into how we're going to process the information for class, but then also how are we all feeling about it and dealing with it, knowing to be fair, we can't just have a counseling session in each class.

00:48:38:08 - 00:48:59:12
Christina Bejarano
But it's it is, a juggle where we're having to then say, I know this is hard to process this information. I know a lot of us are fearful about our current political situation. Here is how maybe we are attempting to deal with it and sharing those mental health resources, and then trying to end on a positive note.

00:48:59:12 - 00:49:09:12
Christina Bejarano
I think that's what I've got so far. But I'm definitely, interested in hearing on everybody else's strategies.

00:49:09:14 - 00:49:41:04
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
I mean, you know, empathy goes a long way, like Christina said, to say, like, I feel the same way. I'm. I, I hear you right versus kind of blowing them off as overreacting, which I think they hear a lot from maybe other adults in their life. And then, you know, right. Trying to end on a positive note is hard, but there are, you know, to tie in maybe a theme, a lot of historical examples of, of movement forward.

00:49:41:04 - 00:50:17:26
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
Right. You know, our country and world are filled with these periods of gains and losses and, thinking about where those, you know, Democratic success stories are, can be helpful. But I also try to remind them, like, look, you are in this classroom right now. Like, look at all the people around you that decided to take this class and decided to care and decided to major in political science and spend their time in college learning about these things.

00:50:17:26 - 00:50:58:15
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
Right. And kind of just I think the what I have to remind myself. But I do think that the, the best solution is being in community and a classroom is a community. And so just kind of reminding them of that and, you know, beyond pointing them to mental health services like, you know, joining a club that you're interested in or going to a worship service or joining a nonprofit sort of organization, these are all like ways to spend your energy, put your phone away and, and, you know, feel like you're doing something and that can bring a lot of peace as well.

00:50:58:15 - 00:51:01:14
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
I have found.

00:51:01:16 - 00:51:24:09
Eric Langenbacher
I mean, maybe I'll jump in for a second to and, make a slightly different point, because I think that we as instructors, there's just so much that we have to process as well. I mean, just this summer, I had a former student who's from Ukraine whose father was killed, right. I have another student right now in my summer class who is from Afghanistan.

00:51:24:11 - 00:51:46:09
Eric Langenbacher
Her parents and entire, family are actually in Iran right now. Now, now they're getting because they work with the with the old government and, U.S. forces over there. And now they're getting kicked out and going back to Afghanistan. And she's, you know, obviously kind of distraught and trying to process all of that. But that takes a toll on us as well.

00:51:46:12 - 00:52:07:21
Eric Langenbacher
Empathy is so important. But you have to regenerate your empathy sometimes. So, you know, as much as we're needing to be there for our students, you know, we need to make sure that that our capacities are regenerated and that we will continue to have empathy going forward. So we need to think about our own self-care sometimes as well.

00:52:07:24 - 00:52:30:29
Eric Langenbacher
And one of the things that I do for myself and that I also tell students is, you know, use fiction sometimes that's one of the best ways, sometimes to kind of work through, you know, just all the crap that is coming from the world. You know, and actually, in my textbook, I have a whole little section on, you know, politics, in television shows and in, in movies.

00:52:30:29 - 00:52:52:24
Eric Langenbacher
And that can often be a way to kind of work through kind of complex feelings. So I encourage people to watch, I don't know, Downton Abbey. I love Downton Abbey. I've probably watched it like three times now. It's obviously very political on so many different levels. And I think that helps me and maybe it helps the students as well.

00:52:52:26 - 00:53:10:21
Allison Critcher
Yeah, I love all of your ideas. I love community, this past semester, I really like which I was talking about was just straight on. I had my students do service learning, which was the first time that I really used it in a huge survey class because it was a lot of work, but that was more restorative for them.

00:53:10:21 - 00:53:32:25
Allison Critcher
Getting out in the community, out of the college bubble, going out. And some served with like religious organizations and some were nonprofits that were helping with food distribution and things. And after the hurricane that hit here, we had a lot, and they came back with some of just life changing stories for some of them that were just they got out and got to see people and put their phone down like that.

00:53:32:25 - 00:53:50:03
Allison Critcher
So I think that's great and just community too for us and realizing we can't do it all and we can recommend them. I have a message for this. I will be happy to walk over with you to the counseling center and help you make an appointment. I would love that for you. And if we need to, and just kind of really kind of engaging in that.

00:53:50:03 - 00:54:04:09
Allison Critcher
And I love yours ending on a positive note, I love that I've got it down. I'm going to have to go back and look at my lecture notes to try to add that in. So I think that's so true. There is a lot of good out there and empowering students to realize they have agency. It doesn't have to be this way.

00:54:04:09 - 00:54:24:27
Allison Critcher
We can change it. This isn't a foregone conclusion if you're unhappy with something. So yeah, I love that. And so the, the kind of the last thing I really wanted to get you guys, I think it's a great question. And it was kind of what are you most excited about or really excited about in the classroom right now?

00:54:24:27 - 00:54:34:15
Allison Critcher
Kind of as we we're a couple weeks away from the new semester, kind of. What things are you really looking forward to and excited about what you see?

00:54:34:17 - 00:55:03:07
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
I can start, I'm starting at a new institution, so I have probably more nervous than excitement. Myself. But, this will be also my first time teaching a big, you know, big lecture class. I come from a small liberal arts school. It was my last job, so I'm just excited by the fact that I have two full sections of students that want to take a public policy class, right?

00:55:03:07 - 00:55:27:09
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
That they see what's going on, and they say, I, I want to learn more and I want to think of solutions. Right, because it's a much more applied class. And I would normally teach in a public policy school. And so that's just making me super excited right there. And that always is. I'm sure that we can all agree, like the best part of teaching isn't necessarily giving the lecture.

00:55:27:09 - 00:55:55:17
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
It's the office hours and the one on one and working on papers and hearing ideas. Right. And so I'm just super excited that I'll have, you know, 120 and there's 120 people that want to take this class that want to you know, be public policy majors. And, that's very, very uplifting to me.

00:55:55:19 - 00:55:58:00
Christina Bejarano
I can up to Eric, go ahead.

00:55:58:03 - 00:56:16:16
Eric Langenbacher
Oh, I, I mean, my answer to the question is, to be honest, I'm still excited about the same things that I was excited about 25 years ago when I started to teach. I mean, there are certain topics that I do in my big lecture class that are also, in the textbook that I still love to impart to the students.

00:56:16:18 - 00:56:42:15
Eric Langenbacher
Right. So one of my favorite topics is the distinctions between presidential and parliamentary regimes. And I swear, every time I do that lecture, because this is a predominantly, to American students, and they've never heard a critique of presidential ism before and they've never thought that, well, maybe there's other alternatives, such as a parliamentary system. And just to see them, like you can literally see in their eyes at first they're shocked.

00:56:42:15 - 00:56:57:18
Eric Langenbacher
Oh my God, he's attacking president. I don't like presidential systems. All right. You know, he's attacking presidential systems. You see they're shocked, but then you see them starting to like you can see like the cogs turning in their brain. Oh, I never thought about that before. Or what of my other favorite topics is electoral systems. Right.

00:56:57:18 - 00:57:24:21
Eric Langenbacher
And you know, once again, you know, most Americans have only really thought about single member plurality and plurality electoral systems. And when they start to think about, well, what proportional representation is, or a mixed system, and just to see them like, like thinking critically about, you know, we don't have to be stuck with the system, right? We don't have to have, you know, another repeat of 2016 or another repeat of 2000, that there are different ways that we can do things.

00:57:24:25 - 00:57:45:29
Eric Langenbacher
When I get them to start thinking about ranked choice voting, for instance, and those kind of things, I just find it so fulfilling to see those kind of light bulbs go off. And, you know, they might not agree with my perspective on things, but at least they thought about it. And so I just I find that to be very empowering to myself and hopefully to the students.

00:57:46:01 - 00:58:11:27
Christina Bejarano
And I'll add that, just like Sarah is doing a different format of the class, it is interesting when we use, we're able to teach our textbook to a different, type of class. So like a big intro, lecture hall that may have 100 students or 120 versus 45 students, which I had last semester. And then this semester it's going to be a first year interest, student group.

00:58:12:00 - 00:58:40:29
Christina Bejarano
So it's when they pair the first year students. So they have multiple classes together, and it's the same group that goes together. So it's only going to be 25 students, but it's also going to include some social activities outside of class. So to be able to teach the text and these big important topics we're talking about today, but more face to face with the students that I can see what their reactions are going to be much more closely than if we are doing that large intro class.

00:58:41:02 - 00:58:44:20
Christina Bejarano
So we'll see how it goes.

00:58:44:22 - 00:59:05:03
Allison Critcher
Thank you all for the discussion, the strategies and the ideas you shared give educators practical ways to adapt their teaching and help students think critically and engage thoughtfully and connect with political science in a meaningful way. Christina, Sarah, and Eric, your perspectives have been invaluable. I am really looking forward to using some of these in my own class.

00:59:05:03 - 00:59:22:22
Allison Critcher
I have notes, they've just been great ideas. And before we go, I want to give you the floor just one last time and kind of what is the one piece of advice, or maybe the parting thought that you really want to give to political science educators before we go?

00:59:22:24 - 00:59:42:00
Eric Langenbacher
Well, maybe I'll start. And I mean, the one thing that I would say is just stick to the basic concepts. Start with fundamentals. You can nudge students in certain directions to certain conclusions, but, you know, empower them, give them the skills, the conceptual, the theoretical, the methodological skills to figure it out for themselves.

00:59:42:02 - 01:00:06:27
Christina Bejarano
I agree, and I would add, I like also having the students think of themselves as experts, that they're taking this class, they know a lot more information than most of the general public. And how they can then apply what they're learning to try to interrogate or explain what's going on in our current political system. So I think they like thinking of themselves as experts.

01:00:06:27 - 01:00:15:25
Christina Bejarano
So how would they change things? How would they even think about changing the Constitution? And that's okay to think about, suggesting changes.

01:00:15:27 - 01:00:40:19
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
And I kind of had the same point, just kind of empowering students with skills to, you know, not just write papers and take tests, but to have conversations at the dinner table with parents that may disagree with them, or to talk with peers that disagree with them and, and kind of get the skills to have tough conversations and to question their own belief system.

01:00:40:19 - 01:01:07:24
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
And that comes through, you know, thinking about longevity and historical views and, and knowing where to find data, but also just kind of being in a setting where they are applying these big, big questions to, you know, real world, present day issues. And so just they can walk away with, I, I like Christina, I always like to tell them, like, you've taken this class, you are an expert in this topic now, right.

01:01:07:24 - 01:01:15:01
Dr. SoRelle Gaynor
And, I think that's, super empowering. And that should be that's always my goal.

01:01:15:03 - 01:01:36:01
Allison Critcher
Again, thank you all for that. And to our listeners, thank you for joining us on the Sage College Publishing Podcast. If you'd like to learn more about today's discussion or explore the books authored by Christina, SoRelle, and Eric, visit colegepublishing.sagepub.com, where you'll find resources made for educators like you. And don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode!

01:01:36:02 - 01:01:41:12
Allison Critcher
Thanks for listening, and keep inspiring your students to engage critically with the political world. Until next time.