Political Science Educator: volume 27, issue 1
Assignments and Course Design
Niva Golan-Nadir, University at Albany, State University of New York, and Reichman University
An applied politics workshop that pairs abstract theory of politics with conventional politics provides a textbook example of hands-on instruction and lively student participation for advanced undergraduates and graduate students. To demonstrate how you might develop such a course at your institution, I discuss my experience leading the Liberty and Responsibility Workshop in Politics for Honors Students in Reichman University’s Institute of Liberty and Responsibility. Students actively make policy in the workshop. Last year, they presented a policy paper to Knesset members who wrote a bill based on student recommendations.
The annual workshop offers a selected group of students with a grade point average of 88 or higher from across the university a unique program that combines theory and practice. Students apply with a CV, a transcript, a letter of recommendation from a lecturer at the school, an essay explaining why they wish to be in the workshop, and a commitment to participate in all workshop activities. I worked with a teaching assistant to interview prospective students and select 20 students from among the 40 applicants. Two of the best students from the previous year also get to participate by guiding the new students through the learning and the implementing process.
Practically, workshops in applied politics should place theory before implementation. Thus, I introduce a theoretical framework that offers several ways to analyze “real life” politics. It then continues with a series of guest lecturers that discuss their political activity with the students. It concludes with the students presenting their working papers that combine theory and practice to offer a practical policy solution to the investigated phenomenon. The class shows students how political science can provide them with the tools to become thoughtful policy makers.
The design of the workshop exposes students to political activity and uses abstract theory to explain how significant change can happen in Israeli politics. The students delve into three different points of view for analyzing Israeli politics: formal and informal institutions, politicians, and civil society. These lenses help students constructively analyze controversial issues in Israeli politics.
The topic investigated by the students in the workshop changes each year, but always concerns a challenge in the Israeli political system that imposes administrative burdens on different groups in society. In the 2021-2022 academic year, the workshop dealt with the lack of public transportation on Saturdays because of religious constraints. In the current academic year 2022-2023, it addressed the crisis in the Israeli education system, specifically the contested relationship between the Ministry of Education and the teaching staffs that has brought about multiple strikes across the years.
Workshop students participate in a two-day retreat before the academic year. The retreat takes place in a guest house in the green north of the country, where the students go through enrichment lectures with local politicians and faculty, as well as social activities guided by a social psychologist. Students also vote on the topic for the subsequent year’s class.
Over the course of the class, students get to know the work of the Knesset, the government, and the local authorities. Students learn through lectures, group activities, and meetings with senior figures in the political sphere. They also go to sessions on Reichman University campus, evening sessions in bars, and one-day tours in government institutions. The lectures draw upon distinguished experts in the political realm in Israel.
The workshop is worth two academic credits, and graded on a pass-fail scale. As figure 1 below illustrates, the workshop spans two semesters. In each semester, students experience a theoretical lecture, meetings with varied practitioners (with one of the meetings in a bar with dinner and drinks), and a day tour. In the first semester, the day tour takes place in a municipality and includes meetings with its officials in the second semester, the workshop concludes in the Israeli Knesset with students presenting their working papers to Knesset members, offering their policy modifications.
Figure 1 – The course of the semesters
The entire class, divided into pairs, writes a policy paper on the class topic (total of 10 policy papers). This highly professional policy memo pulls together substantial and credible evidence, as well as best practices from the policy area, to advance an innovative idea for improving policy. Students only undertake this memo after serious study, preparation, and reflection. As figure 1 above shows, an expert in the policy field teaches students how to write a real-world policy paper in the first session of the second semester. The class session highlights the differences between academic writing and policy writing. The latter–more goal oriented, succinct, and normative in nature — presents a To Do list to improve existing policy. The audience of the policy paper is the decision maker, who usually decide whether to accept or decline the proposal in their first read. During two successive class meetings, students present their ideas to the class, and the students peer review each other for the soundness and applicability of their ideas. Students examine the following criteria for their peer review: a brief description of the specific policy malfunction the paper wishes to resolve, a relevant group of politicians it should address, a succinct solution to the policy problem, a coherent explanation of the team building that the proposal foresees, and a cost-benefit analysis. Students address these components in a presentation that lasts 10-15 minutes. Students and faculty in the audience evaluate the presentation and comment on it in a following class discussion. Finally, in a celebrative concluding day tour to the Knesset, the students present their ideas to Knesset members, who adopt and intend to initiate a bill based on some of the recommendations by students. Though previous Knesset members accepted student policy recommendations by writing a bill, it still awaits passage by new government.
In conclusion, I strongly believe that this multi-activity design for a workshop provides students a tool they need and want in the course of their studies. It offers a memorable experience that makes political science a vital discipline for empowering our students to solve complicated and contentious problems, and reminds us of the growing need of our discipline in a difficult world.
Niva Golan-Nadir is a Research Associate at the Center for Policy Research, Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy, the University at Albany and at the Institute for Liberty and Responsibility, Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy & Strategy at Reichman University, where she heads the honors program.
Published since 2005, The Political Science Educator is the newsletter of the Political Science Education Section of the American Political Science Association. All issues of the The Political Science Educator can be viewed on APSA Connects Civic Education page.
Editors: Colin Brown (Northeastern University), Matt Evans (Northwest Arkansas Community College)
Submissions: editor.PSE.newsletter@gmail.com
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