Session: M2 - Roundtable: On Diversifying Pedagogies within Political Science: Teaching Race, Gender, Sexuality, Indigeneity within

Date: May 31, 2016 | Time: 10:30am to 12:00pm | Location: Science Theatres 127

Chair/Présidente: Ethel Tungohan (University of Alberta)

Participants & Authors/Auteurs:

Linda Trimble (University of Alberta)

Lois Harder (University of Alberta)

Megan Gaucher (Trent University)

Daisy Raphael (University of Alberta)

Nisha Nath (University of Alberta)

Alana Cattapan (Dalhousie University)

Alexa DeGagne (Athabasca University)

Janet Philips (University of Alberta)
Jerald Sabin (Universirty of Toronto)

Sevan Beukian (University of Alberta)

"Standard approaches to teaching introductory courses in Political Science include lectures on institutions, the machineries of government, voting and elections, and political behavior. More often than not, issues pertaining to race, gender, sexuality, and indigeneity are relegated to the back half of the course, thereby leaving the impression that these issues are marginal to the discipline. The purpose of this roundtable is to bring together a group of political scientists to address specific pedagogical challenges to teaching political science while either doing research that are marginal to the discipline or as inhabiting social locations that are marginal within the field. Panelists will discuss the following issues:

1. How can we teach political science without placing at the margins issues of race, gender, sexuality and indigeneity? Can we mainstream the study of race, gender, sexuality, and indigeneity in political science?

2. Are critical and diverse pedagogies, such as intersectional approaches to teaching, relevant in political science classrooms?

3. How do we teach ‘marginal’ issues when the political science canon does not recognize them?

4. What are the specific challenges faced by political scientists when teaching students from diverse and intersecting social locations? Conversely, what are the specific challenges faced by political scientists when teaching students in predominantly white institutions (PWIs)?

5. What strategies can we use to cope with microaggressions?

6. How can we diversify the range of assignments we give our students to challenge mainstream thinking? How do we teach our students to be civically engaged students and active learners?"