Shamira Gelbman, Wabash College, Patrick McGovern, State University of New York – Buffalo, Chase Privett, Morningside University, Leah Murray, Weber State University
The past few years have not been kind to teaching in higher education. It seems too that this has fallen particularly hard on the discipline of political science. While higher education is climbing out of the deficits on campus created by the COVID pandemic, the rise of polarized politics and an intensification in the culture wars have put the discipline and campuses back in the crosshairs of higher education naysayers. Any brief overview of the Chronicle of Higher Ed or Inside Higher Ed and their titles shows a sector apparently not at peace with the larger public and questioning its own purpose. Some of this is clearly of our own making while other issues stem from the present culture wars and the challenge posed by the political use of d/misinformation.
Misinformation works on a variety of levels with our undergraduates according to recent literature. Students are misinformed about the role of higher education in their lives and more and more young people are led to believe that the benefits of a college education are simply not worth it (Jaded with Education). Younger people tend to gain their news and political information from a wide variety of non-traditional sources that often utilize questionable data gathering methods and other means that leave readers open to manipulation (e.g. see Kahne and Bowyer, 2017; Kaufman, 2021). Recent literature suggests that given their views of how much they know about politics, how they think of their role and impact upon the political process, and their perceived notions of opportunities to participate, younger people often remain misinformed and thus less likely to engage in their social and political science courses and ultimately less likely to engage politically in the short and long term.
While the discipline’s literature does a good job researching and discussing engagement, there is not as much regarding disengagement, and even less regarding the intersection of disengagement, misinformation, and student self-awareness. We explore the intersection in light of introductory U.S. government and politics courses at various sized universities. Anecdotal evidence suggests that by focusing on students’ ideological positions and how their positions come to affect their political decision making, the courses become much more aligned as active learning courses. This “mesearch” approach to student knowledge about politics, beginning with an assessment and discussion of their political ideologies, keeps them engaged, we hypothesize, not only in this course, but in their other political science and civics courses. As these courses are oriented around a series of readings and written assignments that urge students to become aware of their ideological position, the history of that ideology, and how their ideology engages with others, students gain a keen historical awareness that at once shows them existing in a much larger historical/political/global context of which they were not fully aware, and that their ideology in turn affects the way that they understand that history and their present political context. As such ‘mesearch’ focuses on the students themselves rather than abstract course content or knowledge that students perceive as being beyond them (Jackson, 2021).
This examination of students’ own views and beliefs keeps students engaged in the course and builds on “civically engaged research” that utilizes the researchers’ embeddedness – magnifying the effect of ‘mesearch.’
The “mesearch” approach also helps to fight misinformation or lack of knowledge that students have about their own views and how this in turn affects how they come to understand their role in politics. This approach reflects the work of Kahne and Bowyer in having students examine preconceived notions of politics and their preferences about political information. Students gain knowledge of their own preconceptions regarding political knowledge & removes constraints on individuals’ ability to learn, in particular, their limits in learning from exposure to diverse viewpoints when it comes to politicized topics. Students gain a greater understanding of how political knowledge and information is produced and distributed and that these processes in and of themselves are political in nature. The end results are more engaged and better-informed students who, at a minimum, stay with these introductory courses and are more likely to engage politically while in and out of school mitigated the effects of d/misinformation that may keep them away from civic engagement.
With civic engagement in mind, we note that the ‘mesearch’ approach help instructors and departments address APSA’s 2024 Learning Outcomes (Rethinking PS Education) regarding content (evaluate diverse theoretical and disciplinary approaches to the sources, ethical distribution, and uses of power, multiple perspectives, theories), skills (Analyze political phenomena and critique arguments in a theoretically and empirically informed manner; engage as citizens through problem solving, collective action, and collaborative decision making at all levels from local to global; and especially engage thoughtfully and respectfully with competing values and perspectives); and values focusing an understanding of civic dispositions conducive to democratic involvement.
Work Cited
APSA Presidential Task Force on Rethinking Political Science Education. 2024. Rethinking Political Science Education. American Political Science Association.
Jackson, J., Shoup, B., & Williams, H. (2021). “Why Civically Engaged Research? Understanding and Unpacking Researcher Motivations,” PS: Political Science & Politics, 54(4), 721-724.
Jaded with Education, AP (2023). https://apnews.com/article/skipping-college-student-loans-trade-jobs-efc1f6d6067ab770f6e512b3f7719cc0.
Kahne, J., & Bowyer, B. (2017). “Educating for Democracy in a Partisan Age: Confronting the Challenges of Motivated Reasoning and Misinformation,” American Educational Research Journal, 54(1), 3–34.
Kaufman, Chelsea (2021). “Civic Education in a Fake News Era: Lessons for the Methods Classroom,” Journal of Political Science Education, 17:2, 326-331.
