Making and remaking the political: Lessons from the US experience of civic and political engagement in the teaching of political science

Blair, Alasdair

doi:10.1177/0263395716685932

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…This has been tried in the UK, but not with much success, in the development of the old A/S and A-level subject of Citizenship (see Jones, 2007). More recently, Blair (2017) has considered the lack of civic and political engagement in society in the UK. He notes the rather limited debate on this matter in the UK.…”

Section: This Is Not Newmentioning

confidence: 99%

Putting the action into Politics: embedding employability in the academic curriculum

Lishman

Jones

2022

Eur Polit Sci

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Usage of any items from the University of Cumbria's institutional repository 'Insight' must conform to the following fair usage guidelines.Any item and its associated metadata held in the University of Cumbria's institutional repository Insight (unless stated otherwise on the metadata record) may be copied, displayed or performed, and stored in line with the JISC fair dealing guidelines (available here) for educational and not-for-profit activities provided that• the authors, title and full bibliographic details of the item are cited clearly when any part of the work is referred to verbally or in the written form Putting the Action into Politics: embedding employability in the academic curriculumIf you were to ask your students why they are studying politics, public administration or international relations, a wide range of answers are likely to ensue. There will be those students who aspire to elected office. Others see careers in the diplomatic service or in the EU or UN. Others again envisage working as researchers for pressure or lobby groups. Regardless as to the potential career, there will be those students who are focused and driven, having a clear goal and how their time at university will aid them in achieving it. For the most part, student aspirations are rather vague, with only a broad-brush idea as to a potential career. There are also those students who have no idea as to any sort of preferred destiny. Regardless as to what career aspirations may be present, very few students appear aware of the actual skills needed to achieve them. While 'a good degree' is widely acknowledged as being important, there is a distinct lack of awareness as to the basic skills needed in employment. What may complicate matters, at least for some students, is their understanding that in coming to university they will be acquiring 'knowledge'. That is sometimes their sole focus. There does not appear to be an awareness of the skills development -implicit or explicit -that is undertaken within tertiary study, or how these skills may enhance any future career development. There is also a lack of appreciation of the 'academic' skills needed while at university, or how these feed into future careers. Thus, employability is seen as a key part of education. There is often an issue as to what is meant by the term 'employability', as well as how the concept could -or possibly should -be embedded in the academic curriculum. A succinct definition is as follows: "Advance HE views embedding employability as providing the opportunities to develop knowledge, skills, experiences, behaviours, attributes, achievements and attitudes to enable graduates to make successful transitions and contributions, benefitting them, the economy and their communities" (Advance HE, n/d, online).Added to this, UK employers have often complained about graduates not having the appropriate skills for entering the workplace, although confidence in finding the appropriately skilled people had risen to almost 75 % in 2018 (CBI, 2019, 8). This paper will focus upo...

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Section: This Is Not Newmentioning

confidence: 99%

Putting the action into Politics: embedding employability in the academic curriculum

Lishman

Jones

2022

Eur Polit Sci

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“…It was precisely in this context of a persistent "knowledge deficit" amongst British voters when it comes to EU matters that the authors ran a free Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on the topic of the EU referendum in the weeks leading up to the vote. This article analyses the effectiveness of this MOOC as a pedagogical tool for counteracting the EU knowledge deficit and reflects on the wider lessons provided for citizenship education and political engagement through the use of such courses (Blair 2017).…”

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confidence: 99%

Remain or Leave? Reflections on the pedagogical and informative value of a Massive Open Online Course on the 2016 UK referendum on EU membership

Glencross

Denny

2017

JCER

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While the British electorate was asked to vote on a simple-sounding question during the UK referendum on EU membership in June 2016, the issues at play were extremely complex. In order to help potential voters make sense of the debate, the authors ran a free Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on the referendum in the weeks leading up to the vote. The core of the MOOC featured all the common characteristics of this type of course: weekly video lectures, quizzes, question and answer sessions, forums and personal journals which participants could use to share and deliberate. This article reflects on the design and delivery of this course to assess its usefulness in an academic setting, especially when treating politically sensitive questions. In particular, we consider issues of format, participation, and interaction and also examine student outcomes as measured by a survey of users who completed the course. What this shows is that the ability of MOOCs to deliver on their initial promise as a revolutionary pedagogical tool for communicating knowledge remains somewhat limited. Nevertheless, the level of student satisfaction obtained and the desire expressed in discussion forums for more expert analysis outside conventional channels suggests there is probably a high demand for EU-related MOOCs.

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Digital interactive information technologies in political education and civic participation of students of Chinese universities

Chen

2023

Educ Inf Technol

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Making and remaking the political: Lessons from the US experience of civic and political engagement in the teaching of political science

Cited by 4 publications

References 67 publications

Putting the action into Politics: embedding employability in the academic curriculum

Putting the action into Politics: embedding employability in the academic curriculum

Remain or Leave? Reflections on the pedagogical and informative value of a Massive Open Online Course on the 2016 UK referendum on EU membership

Digital interactive information technologies in political education and civic participation of students of Chinese universities

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