Teaching American government and politics : centering democratic citizenship and engagement in the introductory classroom / A. Lanethea Mathews-Schultz (Professor, Political Science, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA), Jennie Sweet-Cushman (Associate Professor, Political Science, Chatham University, Pittsburgh, PA, US).
Preface -- 1. Teaching American government and politics for the 21st century -- 2. Where does change happen? -- 3. What are the best tools for change? -- 4. How can we talk to others? -- 5. When can we trust political information? -- 6. Why does it matter? -- 7. Teaching American politics to unconventional students in unconventional times -- Appendix: Flipped classroom Introduction to American government syllabus template -- References.
Summary:
"Providing practical, concrete teaching strategies alongside relevant methodology and scholarship, this book offers a pedagogical approach for centering students' democratic citizenship and political engagement in American government courses. Teaching American Government and Politics proposes a radically different orientation to teaching in this field, moving away from the dominant focus on political knowledge and turning towards an understanding of what students as political citizens should be able to do. A. Lanethea Mathews-Schultz and Jennie Sweet-Cushman introduce five citizenship competencies for successful political engagement, providing constructive teaching strategies for each. These include the skills to navigate and hold institutions accountable (institutional competency); the propensity to act strategically with different political tools (participatory competency); the willingness to talk to others about politics (deliberative competency); the confidence to discern the trustworthiness of political information and to use media responsibly (informational competency); and the ability to recognize the affective dimensions of politics and to take care of one's own emotional health as a citizen (emotional competency). Pairing teaching scholarship with practical tools and guidance, this book will be invaluable for instructors of American government courses, alongside broader courses on politics and government, democracy studies, and governance and the political process. Political scientists whose research interests include the scholarship of teaching will also find this book highly informative"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.