This generation of students is politically energized, and 2024 promises to be another intense election cycle. Is your political science course ready to match the enthusiasm? The Raise the Vote relaunch has got you covered. This past year was another hypercharged political season, previewing what’s to come in 2024. Enthusiasm is high, especially for the new voters that typically fill political science classrooms at the college level. This energy has been building over time and has important implications for all political science courses and instructors wanting to cultivate the civic skills of this new generation. In the 2018 midterms, for the first time, a combination of younger generations (Gen Z, Millennials and Gen X) outvoted older generations with the millennial turnout rate doubling in comparison to 2014 (Pew Research, 2019). Gen Z voters have continued this momentum and can no longer be ignored as an important voting bloc (USA Today, 2022).
Many consider the Gen Z vote as one of major factors that stemmed the expected “red wave” during the 2022 midterm elections, with one 20-year-old college student summing up the passion driving many of these young people to the ballot box: “We were born into a world where the environment is crumbling, democracy is dying, bigotry is becoming the norm, and we’re angry about it” ( The Philadelphia Inquirer, 2022). Even companies are paying attention to this wave of activitism with Fortune advising that, “[b]usinesses should take note of the clear values exhibited by young people: Your employees and consumers expect you to take a stand on societal issues.” (Fortune, 2022). Clearly, we’re in the midst of a new era of political awakening and activism for our nation’s youth.
Political science faculty are in a unique position, through our instruction and coursework, to help get these excited young voters ready to engage in active citizenship in ways that are informed, productive, and that promote civic values. How have you accounted for this political revival in the courses you teach? Have you adapted your teaching in any ways to match these demographic shifts and meet the needs of the next generation? Have you noticed an increased political zeal in your classrooms and want to find some creative ways to capture and direct the energy into projects or activities? Maybe you’re looking for ways to handle teaching contentious issues in ways that cultivate productive discussion and real deliberation amongst students rather than emotion-laden shouting matches. Perhaps you’ve been looking for ways to connect your coursework with the local community and need some inspiration. It could even be that you’re simply looking for better course engagement and are tired of grading the same old essays, wanting to get away from courses structured mostly around lecture and exams.
Either way, this is a historic moment for American democracy. Are you going to take part in shaping the next generation for active and productive citizenship? APSA’s relaunch of teaching and learning resources in Raise the Vote has got you covered with materials and ideas to get your classes more civically engaged. Over the past few months, the Teaching and Learning team at APSA have been scouring our existing resources for instructional examples and materials that promote civic engagement. We’ve reorganized some of the amazing materials from past contributors (and many new resources too!) by the type of instructional method. It is our hope that this will help to get some ideas and curricular resources for activities and assignments for your class plus to inspire you with some general methods that can apply to pretty much any political science course that you teach. These include:
Navigating the Challenges of Classroom Discussions, Deliberations, and Debates: Methods and Advice from the Field
With pieces by Eric Schwartz, Sarah Surak, Andrew Oros, and more, check this guide out to access resources for leading discussions, including a method called Structured Academic Controversy which helps students to consider other points of view and have productive conversations about divisive issues.
Inspiration and Materials for Running Simulations in Political Science Classrooms
Here you’ll find resources and ideas (from authors including Dick Carpenter and Joshua Dunn; Gayle Alberda; Peter Miller, Steven Kimbrough, and Johanna Schacht; Nicole Kalaf-Hughes and Russell Mills) for running simulations such as political campaigns financing and strategy, mock legislative sessions, the redistricting process, and more!
Experiential Learning in Political Science Courses
Check out this resource for ideas about how to run effective civically-oriented projects in your course, including pieces about service learning (by Robert Nyenhuis & Brady Collins) and community-based projects like the Priorities Project (by Debra DeLaet) and the Mikva Challenge.
All Politics is Local: Getting Students Engaged with State and Local Politics
If you’re looking for more ways to get your courses and students connected to the local community, look no further than this resource guide for state and local politics with inspirational works about hosting candidate forums, small assignments that can be done in online or in-person courses, and even a photojournalism assignment highlighting local issues!
Taking Essays to the Next Level in Political Science Classrooms
This resource guide has all you need to spice up the writing in your courses and get your students actively practicing ways to flex their civic muscles through the written word. Ideas include ways to make essays more authentic and connected to skills of citizenship including a piece by Ian Anson as well as some video clips and other examples of approaches to taking your written assignments to the next level.
Calls for new materials
Already promoting civic skills in your class? We want to hear from you!
As part of our resource review and reorganization, we’ve identified some topics and areas that we are interested in publishing on the Raise the Vote/Educate platforms for other political science faculty to utilize in their courses. The topics that we’re looking to add over the next year include:
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• Election Integrity
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• Voter Laws and Suppression
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• Courts and Judicial Advocacy
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• Election Reform and Comparative Electoral Systems
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• Polarization and Political Identity Formation
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• Polling, Surveys, and Exit Polls
If you’d be interested in submitting your work, email teaching@apsanet.org.
