Moderator's Introduction

Combining the presentations on diversity and global perspectives turned out to be very productive. We discovered a natural affinity between the conference's goal of creating a collaborative teaching and learning environment that bridges the cosmopolitan and local knowledge teachers and students bring together in the classroom and the substance of what we wanted students to learn about diversity within and among countries in a period of accelerating globalization. While the contexts and stakes could not be more different, the challenges of combining a professor's “cosmopolitan knowledge” with students' “local knowledge” are theoretically analogous to the political challenges of honoring the local knowledge that grows out of our diversity while simultaneously nurturing a more shared, cosmopolitan knowledge that can connect us in mutually acceptable ways. Put differently, when it comes to understanding the politics of diversity and globalization, the classroom can be used both as an example and as an application of political theory. Working within this broad theme, we discussed a variety of very specific ideas to promote collaborative and active learning about diversity and world politics.

Creating “A Window to the World”

A Croat, a Serb, and an Albanian who left their war torn homes arrive in Thessaloniki, Greece and are suddenly sitting in the same Introduction to Politics classroom. A student in the Middle East is negotiating peace settlements in an online simulation with a student in Santa Clara, California. Students in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and in Quito, Ecuador are speaking with one another via a videoconference connection about the impacts of globalization. The experiences of the panelists and their classes reflect larger trends in the international system in which local cultures and identities remain significant even as professor, students, and learning spaces are increasingly cosmopolitan. The embedded political science classroom is a case study of the challenges posed to states and local identities and cultures that are increasingly challenged by the processes of globalization, including travel, communication, and new technologies.

The participants of this panel presented learning scenarios that ranged from a “Clash of Civilizations” within the classroom to a borderless classroom linked via an Internet Protocol (IP) connection. Tina Mavrikos-Adamou and Patrick O'Neil stressed the value of analyzing politics through conceptual frameworks and comparisons. Mavrikos, located at the American College of Thessaloniki, uses this technique to create a common ground of discussion within a classroom filled with students from the varying ethnic groups of the former Yugoslavia. O'Neil, located at the University of Puget Sound, employs a similar technique to provide a global perspective to students who may not have ever traveled outside of the United States, yet are curious about other political systems and cultures. Both emphasize using common concepts and critical analysis to create increased understanding of global and local diversity.

Shawn Walters works with a quite different student population. He discussed the need for Air Force Academy students to have a global perspective, not only for increased understanding, but for practical implementation of their duties. To address these educational needs, faculty at the Academy have created a new multidisciplinary Geopolitics course that combines cultural geography, traditional strategic analysis, demography, global weather and environmental patterns, and international politics. Using GIS mapping software, students view not only state borders, but also global drought patterns and infant mortality rates that impact international relations. While designed to address the educational needs of a very distinctive group of students, the multidisciplinary approach to geopolitics addresses questions of diversity and globalization in ways that have broad application.

Of course, culture clashes are not only apparent on the international scene, but often occur within the state itself. William Hall discussed a course that uses an analysis of the history of civilliberty revolutions within the United States to lay the groundwork for an examination of the modern gay rights movement. As in the case of the ethnic differences that divided students in Thessaloniki, Greece, gay rights is a controversial topic about which many students have deeply held views that they are uncomfortable reexamining. Using previous civil rights revolutions as examples not only provides theoretically relevant material on revolutions in understandings of civil liberties; it also creates some very much needed analytical distance for students and an opportunity to create a set of norms for class discussion. Here again, the political science classroom provides a dynamic environment to test previous notions of self.

Glenn Hastedt embeds the international system in a capstone course through international simulations and active learning scenarios. Students assume the roles of state and international non-state actors in order to simulate historical, present, and hypothetical conflict situations. Through practical application and learner-centered strategies, Hastedt brings the “real world” to the classroom, challenging students to temporarily set aside their local views and place themselves in the roles of others. Students transcend the walled boundaries of the classroom and seek solutions to global dilemmas.

Students at Santa Clara University also experience real world negotiations through simulations, but literally transcend the classroom walls through a Web-based interactive simulation where students represent countries in the Middle Eastern region. The goal is to not only transcend state boundaries, but to also overcome ethno-centric thinking in order to develop empathy for other countries, peoples, and the complexities of global affairs. Rather than rely solely on U.S.-based information, William Stover provides nationals from the countries involved as advisers and links to Middle Eastern sources of news and media to provide students with a view that people in the Middle East may have. This, notes Stover, has increased student empathy for peoples and leaders in the region and fostered a re-assessment of their initial perceptions.

While technology is present in all of the teaching strategies and learning environments among the panelists, Pamela Martin's classroom is dependent upon technology for her class on Globalization that is taught between Coastal Carolina University in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and La Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador. Through a videoconference connection via Internet Protocol (IP), students at both sites discuss the impacts of globalization in the lesser developed and developed world and even participate in a web-based simulation on the Cancun Round of the World Trade Organization. This classroom is the most cosmopolitan in the sense that walls are meaningless. However, local identities remain significant factors and location within a State (in this case, the U.S. and Ecuador) reinforce the bridges of cosmopolitanism with the “roots” of local identities.

Increasing the place of diversity and global perspectives in the classroom has impacted changes in teaching methodologies, materials and resources, and use of technology. Rather than lecture as the “sage on the stage,” Tina Mavrikos and Bill Hall recommend encouraging open discussion and communication about sensitive issues. Through case studies and simulations, Patrick O'Neil, Glenn Hastedt, William Stover, and Pamela Martin emphasize active learning that engages students to apply concepts learned in class to “real world” situations. Tina Mavrikos and Pamela Martin noted the inability to find multicultural, non-U.S.-based literature in political science in languages other than English. Although in varying degrees, technology was a feature in all of the political science classrooms of this panel, from PowerPoint presentations to videoconference classes. The emphasis was on picking the form of technology that fit both the learning objective of the class and the expertise of the faculty member.

The classroom, in its many forms, is also an actor within the international system. During the conference presentations, panelists were reminded that we are embedded within the larger global framework in which we teach and learn; in other words, there is a politics to the process of learning. The pulls of globalization and cosmopolitan actors against the constraints of local and national identities are reflected within our classrooms each day, which leads us to the question: Could this be fertile ground for the study of International Relations? While we found students to be grounded in localisms, will our own methods of teaching foster cosmopolitan global citizens of the future? The impacts of our own teaching methodologies and learning outcomes within the global environment may be one of the greatest and most exciting challenges of our discipline.