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I argue in this paper that one possible way of addressing the critical issue of preparing students for their future role as citizens in a global society is to integrate active learning exercises such as case studies and problem-based learning scenarios that focus on international issues and events and significant global conditions. These provide an opportunity for students to practice the skills that are essential for participation in modern democratic societies. In this brief discussion paper, I present two very practical strategies for introducing students to global realities and exposing them to different cultural and ideological ways of “seeing the world.” Both strategies emphasize skills that are essential for analysis, evaluation and, eventually, problem-solving.
The first “internationalizing strategy” introduces students to a worldview analytical model that challenges the dominance of the realist/neorealist and neoliberal theoretical paradigms taught in most U.S. international relations courses. This framework expands the narrative by presenting three broad worldview categories—maintainer, reformer, and transformer—and introducing students to theories in each category. Students are asked to consider how these worldviews contribute to our “construction of the world” and how it is critically important that we consider all three worldviews if we seek a complete picture of an international issue or major event.
Most U.S. students tend to look at issues from a maintainer worldview (i.e., realism, neorealism, or neoliberalism), the perspective or paradigm promoted by texts and the print and visual media in the U.S. In U.S. classrooms, the “internationalization” takes place when students are required to add reformer and transformer voices to their analysis (Lamy 1988; Golich and Lamy forthcoming).
The second “internationalizing strategy” also emphasizes the development of skills and is based on a learner-centered philosophy of teaching. Again, I believe that internationalizing the curriculum is all about developing critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Two excellent active learning strategies are case-based teaching and problem-based learning. These approaches challenge the dominant teaching paradigm—the standard lecture. Although they recognize the importance and value of a good lecture, these approaches suggest that the “sage on the stage” needs to find ways of sharing the spotlight with his/her students. In an active learning classroom, students practice critical analytical and evaluative skills. They must learn to describe, explain, predict, and prescribe, but they must also consider alternative strategies for participation. In some sense, active learning may be a way to address the growing problem of political apathy. Active learning strategies require that students share responsibility for teaching and learning. In a case discussion they might be asked: If you had been advising the prime minister, which policy strategy would you have supported?
In a problem-based course, students engage in cooperative research to find out how best to respond to a critical problem, but they must also identify who can help them find such a solution. In both situations, students become advocates for positions and players in the policy process. In so doing, they become less intimidated with the complexity of the policy process, more informed about how other societies formulate and implement policies, and more familiar with possible strategies for participation in these areas. This may lead to more informed activism.
Challenging any paradigm is not easy. However, if we think carefully about how we teach, what we teach, and where we teach, and if we consider the skills and competencies our students will need to master in order to survive if not prosper in this era of globalization, some form of internationalization is critical.
Why the Push for Internationalization?
Globalization is the most powerful argument for internationalization today. By the 1990s, the concept of globalization supplanted complex interdependence as the term most frequently invoked to capture the complex set of processes crossing political, social, economic, and cultural borders. At a minimum, globalization is multidimensional, and includes the increasingly rapid and intense movement of goods, services, information, capital, and people across ever-more-porous national boundaries. In addition, globalization signifies the increasingly intricate web of production as corporations create global alliances and parcel out manufacturing to a wide range of geographic locations, according to resource availability, labor skill level, and costs, as well as other transaction costs. Substantial evidence suggests that globalization does affect the ability of governments to meet the needs of their citizens. To that end, globalization has created a growing awareness of risks and dangers—e.g., terrorism, environmental degradation, climate change, poverty—that threaten the world as a whole.
None of this necessarily means that the state will become obsolete. It does mean that states are pooling resources, through bilateral or multilateral cooperative agreements or treaties and shared decision-making with regional and international organizations to protect and provide for their citizens. It might help to think about globalization as the stretching of social, political, and economic activities across the boundaries of all states. This stretching links people and communities in such a way that decisions, events, and actions in one country can and do affect communities across the globe (Held 2003).
Complex interdependence and globalization scholars present persuasive arguments for knowing and caring about the international or global system. Few would disagree with the claim that successful world leaders will need to understand the global nature of most if not all of the challenges that we face. No one can comprehend markets, global finance, music and popular culture, migration, organized crimes, pandemics, war, or any other significant issue without a thorough understanding of things domestic and international. Few if any of the problems currently threatening our quality of life can be resolved without some form of cooperation with other global actors. Our leaders, now and in the future, will need to embrace a global perspective in recognizing and defining these problems. They will also need to make a commitment to multilateralism and the effective use of international organizations to develop common strategies for addressing the challenges presented by increasing globalization. Most national leaders recognize that globalization has made securing national interests more complicated, even making it harder to define what “the national interest” might be (Golich and Lamy forthcoming).
Other arguments for internationalization include those that promote global commerce and see the world as a global marketplace. Also, there is a growing research community in the area of global public goods and evils that encourage transactional policy processes. Fundamentally, courses need to internationalize in a world in which deviance, defiance, and isolation are no longer viable options.
The first step in the process of internationalizing a course is adding a “global perspective” and successful examples include the following elements (Lamy 1991):
- global perspectives courses present information that represents a diversity of voices—rich and poor, male and female, historical, multicultural, and contending ideologies.
- global perspectives courses encourage students to carefully examine their assumptions, values, and beliefs—not to convert them to a different worldview, but to encourage them to understand how their images of the world can both liberate and limit. It is essential that they learn to compare their views with alternative perspectives before selecting a path of action.
- global perspectives courses teach students the basic skills of discovery, analysis, and evaluation.
- global perspectives courses encourage involvement. Students are introduced to strategies for participating in programs that address national, global, or transboundary issues. Furthermore, a major focus of global perspectives courses is on the responsibilities of power and affluence in an unequal and violent world.
- global perspectives courses do not push a normative agenda—students are encouraged to critically review political issues with all actors in mind and not form a single perspective. Comparative and historical analysis of issues is essential for this sort of thorough analysis.
Strategy One: Internationalizing an Introductory International Relations Course—Adding a Worldview Analytical Framework
An important fundamental assumption of our version of the introductory international relations course is that where you stand depends on where you sit and we all sit in our worldview. Students need to realize that they sit in a world constructed by their core beliefs and assumptions about human behavior, social relations, institutions of governance, and the world around them. This worldviews framework takes as a given that politics is all about conflict and controversy. People look at the world through different prisms, which we will call worldviews. These worldviews are shaped by their environment, their histories, experiences, and by the core beliefs that define their world. Discussions and analyses of international relations are more contentious because of the diversity of worldviews and the lack of consensus on such issues as governance, the nature of human rights, and how best to provide order and stability in an anarchic system. What makes international relations different from domestic politics is that it is more about survival and it is a constant search for order and equity in an anarchic, unequal, and competitive global environment.
The critical point here is that theory matters! Every decision-maker carries theories around in his/her head. Every individual uses theories to organize, evaluate, and critically review contending positions in controversial policy areas. Your confidence as a scholar or policymaker is increased if supported by theoretical positions that are in turn formulated after a thorough understanding of historical evidence in a given policy area.
Students in this course read foundational, modern, and contemporary theorists in each of the three worldview categories and thereby develop a keen sense of who informs them on significant issues.
It is hoped that after completion of this course, students will know more about the international system and the issues that shape the priorities and behavior of states and other actors in that system. The course is designed to encourage students to approach international relations in a more sophisticated and theoretically grounded manner. If the course is successful, students will:
[bull ] Develop a more comprehensive understanding of the various theoretical positions and the roles these theories play in our understanding of the international system (Knowledge-building).
a) Be able to describe the core assumptions of maintainers, reformers, and transformers.
b) Be able to identify the similarities and differences between theories in these three categories.
c) Be able to identify how someone with a particular worldview constructs the world in terms of policy priorities and responses to these problems.
[bull ] Understand the relationship between theory and policymaking in the international system (Problem-solving).
a) Be able to identify how policy-makers with a particular worldview are likely to respond to a given global challenge.
[bull ] Develop an appreciation of the fact that your own worldview is not universally shared and that other worldviews and theoretical assumptions may need to be considered before one has a full understanding of a situation (Values and attitudes).
a) Understand how you (the student) construct the world. Explore your own worldview and understand how it both limits and liberates in terms of your pursuit of the good life.
[bull ] Enhance their ability to understand the international system and thereby increase their capacity to act or participate at various levels in the international system (Participation and action).
a) Be able to identify how power is organized, who the key players in the system are, and what role they play.
b) Be able to identify opportunities for civic engagement and participation in the policy processes at local and global levels.
Active Learning Exercises
A number of studies on how to encourage student learning suggest that students prefer more frequent assignments that allow them to use readings, lectures, and other materials. In this introductory course, students participate in eight “lab sessions,” led by teaching assistants, in which they operationalize course readings and lectures by participating in case discussions, focused debates, research and library assignments, and problem-based assignments1
1. A number of these exercises are available at the CALIS web site: http://usc.glo.org/calis/db/.
How is this internationalization? These are truly critical thinking exercises because they require students to identify, analyze, and evaluate contending positions on controversial issues. In that analytical process they are exposed to different cultures, ideologies, norms, values, and political actors. In the Darfur exercise, students researching maintainer views find the answers in the policy statements of major powers and from realist thinkers in universities across the West. They find that most major powers tend to emphasize national interests over human interests. The reformers find plenty of information from sources in traditional middle powers like Canada, the Netherlands, and the Nordic states. The students researching transformers find most of their information by reading the reports and policy statements produced by NGOs and non-state actors like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and OXFAM.
The end result of this activity is an animated and informed discussion reflecting views from across the world and representing most legitimate ideological perspectives or worldviews. Students include descriptions, explanations, predictions, and prescriptions in their policy briefs.
A Second Strategy: Case Teaching and Problem-Based Learning
The concept of learners as receivers of information should be replaced with a view of learners as self-motivated, self-directed problem solvers and decision-makers who are developing the skills necessary for learning and who develop a sense of self-worth and confidence in their ability to participate in a changing society. —Source Unknown
Active learning is primarily about critical thinking and learning by doing. Active learning puts students in real life decision-making situations. Students focus on policy dilemmas or issues that are ambivalent enough to allow for different responses and competing policy strategies. Fundamentally, in an active learning classroom students do more than just listen to a lecture and ask an occasional question.
The lecture is not set aside in an active learning course. It is simply “seasoned” with reading, writing, and discussion exercises, such as a mini-debate, a problem-solving exercise, or a simulation. Students are asked to “operationalize” or use information presented in lecture or discussed in a text. They engage in the higher order thinking tasks of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of competing arguments. Good active learning exercises require that students read, discuss, write, and present in a single-class period. Studies show that active learning courses are comparable to lectures for learning specific content information, but are much better for developing critical thinking skills (Bonwell and Eison 1991).
Case Study Courses
A teaching case is a story, describing or based on actual events and circumstances, that is told with a definite teaching purpose in mind and that rewards careful study and analysis. —Larry Lynn
As the above quote suggests, cases are stories based on actual events in which the characters or actors are fully developed and the decision-making process is presented as clearly as possible. A good case is written so as to provide students the chance to explore policy options from a variety of perspectives. Case discussions give students a chance to evaluate decision-making and suggest ways of improving the decision-making process and policy outcomes.
In a case class, the responsibility of learning shifts from the faculty expert to a triadic partnership among students and faculty. Students learn from well-crafted questions asked by the faculty member and the responses from their peers. An experienced faculty “discussion leader” adjusts the case direction and revises questions based on the substance of the students' comments and questions. Rarely does a good case discussion closely follow a single teaching plan. However, a case class is not just an open-ended discussion. An instructor must devote significant time to mapping the case to focus and structure the discussion so as to encourage students to explore both theoretical and policy issues. Before presenting each case it is important to distribute “pre-case questions” to prepare students for the discussion and to assure that they look for specific lessons or illustrations. Case learning is more effective if students discover or construct knowledge with some faculty or discussion leader guidance.
Case studies that explore policy issues and decision-making in most countries are available from the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown, the Kennedy School at Harvard, and the Harvard Business School. These provide an easy method for students to go inside other societies and to compare policy responses or to search for explanations for policy decisions. They might learn that a country's political culture best explains a country's decision to support the Kyoto Treaty or that coalition governments make it difficult to reach effective decisions in crisis situations. Case studies emphasize the importance of individuals as decision-makers and the relevance of domestic attributes in shaping the policy process. This sort of comparative analysis through case studies fits the requirements of an internationalized course.
Problem-Based Learning Exercises
Part of being an effective teacher and scholar is designing your course so that students can discover and decide how to use new information on their own to participate in the world. They might use this information to maintain the status quo, to reform a failed system, or to solve a taxing problem. Still, some of our students might use their knowledge to push for radical transformation of our global system. It is this process of discovery and participation that is a defining element of problem-based learning (PBL).
PBL integrates academic theory and policy research with real life problem situations. Most courses include elements of PBL. When an instructor discusses a current public policy problem, from a local zoning dispute to the War on Terrorism, and then asks students to evaluate current responses or suggest alternatives, he/she is using a form of PBL.
This form of active self-directed learning began in medical schools and is used extensively in many public policy programs. It is particularly useful in postgraduate in-service programs for public policy specialists, because much of what they may have learned in their degree programs may be obsolete during their professional career.
PBL is a form of constructivist learning. Once presented with a problem, students develop hypotheses about how the problem developed and how best to respond. Then they must find the information that is essential for effectively responding to the problem. PBL provides an excellent way for students to develop their own research skills, but it also contributes to their knowledge of the history of key policy issues and the actors involved in successful or failed programs.
In general, PBL exercises follow an eight-step approach:
Step One: Students are presented with a public policy program (e.g., how to sell the public on the expansion of NATO) and are divided into research groups to address the problem.
Step Two: Within each research group students break down the problem into what is known, unknown, and presumed.
Step Three: The research group identifies areas where more research is necessary.
Step Four: Each student is assigned a research task and the group reviews possible sources of information.
Step Five: Research group leaders meet with their professor to review assignments and to discuss the initial problem—identification process. At the time, the professor might also make suggestions about possible sources of information.
Step Six: The research group meets to share initial findings and discuss research strategies.
Step Seven: The research group meets a second time to design their policy responses to the assigned problem.
Step Eight: The research group shares their work with other research teams.
The students are told that it is an active learning class and that they will be expected to participate in each session, and that if they are not willing to do so, they should enroll in another class. The students are introduced to the problem-based cooperative learning approach in the very first class. They are also told that discussion, group research, case studies, and other interactive learning exercises will be the norm in the class. The course is designed to encourage students to ask critical questions and know where to find the information to answer the same. In a course that encourages collaboration and learning communities, students usually end up being able to develop their own knowledge that is appropriate to their assigned country or non-state actor's responses to the problem. This is what Burch (2000, 31) calls a “hands-on and minds-on” style of teaching and learning.
Concluding Remarks
Both introductory international relations courses and policy courses need to be framed and structured by theoretical arguments that reflect thinking across time and cultures. Courses built on a flimsy foundation of war stories fall apart when the war stories run out. In turn, courses that are built around arcane theoretical debates usually “turn off” those students who are not inclined to continue their academic training and become a member of the academy. A truly relevant course is based on both experience and analysis. International relations as a modern discipline was begun to address a complex problem: war. As a problem-solving discipline, we need to find ways for our students to use theoretical arguments and the evidence they produce to understand the policy process and to critically analyze the behavior of states.
Both case study and PBL courses provide students an opportunity to inhabit the policy world with tools of analysis and evaluation. These teaching strategies respond clearly to several points about education raised by John Dewey. He argued that the intelligence of any individual is enhanced by participating in processes of inquiry, discussion, and criticism—all essential elements of case teaching and PBL exercises. Learning comes in the reconstruction of problematic situations and, one might add, the identification of critical lessons for future leaders who might face similar situations (Hickman and Alexander 1998, 233). We need to find ways to engage students, to give them more responsibility for their own learning and a greater role in creating a useful learning experience for other students and their instructors. The task of any course, curriculum, or discipline is to be relevant and responsive to the needs of humankind. Today, these needs are global or universal and require that we develop a global perspective or risk missing our opportunity to prepare informed and effective citizens who might find ways of responding to a variety of persistent global problems.
