Teaching Comparative

Decisions, decisions

Linda Dean asked, "I agree that the Economist is a great resource. My problem is there are SO MANY great articles I don't know which ones to give to my students. Any suggestions/ advice?"

Great question. I haven't given it a lot of conscious thought recently.

Linda's question was a response to my posting of three Economist articles that have teaching potential. I don't know how or whether I'd use all three. I know I don't use all the articles that have potential. How do I choose?

A couple years ago, I was asked to write a little essay for AP Central about using current events to teach U.S. Government and Politics. It's still posted as a Feature Article under "Teaching Skills" on both of the Government and Politics home pages.

What I said was that I wanted to use "journalistic accounts that supplement a concept or a theme from the students' text readings." I also wrote that I wanted "to closely tie the consideration of current events to an essential part of the course." The other suggestion I made was that a good article "...offers ways to apply and test the contentions of textbook authors and to engage the interest of students naturally concerned about the way government is actually run and politics are actually played. Both will help students learn."

My criteria for choosing which articles to use?

• Can I figure out a way to use it in a teaching/learning experience?
  
• Is it relevant to important elements of the course?
  
• Is the illustration clear (or clear enough that I can help students see it)?
  
• Is it relevant to what I'm teaching now?
  
• Will it interest students or can I make it interesting?
  

Another thing I wrote in that AP Central essay was, "It's not always possible to find all the articles I want to use at the time I'm teaching a specific topic, so I collect news stories year-round. I file them by topics on my course outline. And when I go through the file to choose good examples, I throw out the older materials." I do recommend keeping files of articles -- paper files and digital files. Good examples can be several years old. (I once had an Economist article about the first Black woman elected to Parliament that was so good in describing the Old Boys Club of Commons that I used it for nearly a decade.)

The first article I recommended the other day was "The Conservative Party: Paleos versus posers" about how parties in the UK select Parliamentary candidates. It's an illustration of how recruitment and party politics work and it describes details that are probably not in a textbook. The details may not be vital, but talking or writing about these will help students remember things about the hierarchical nature of parties and that representation is not tied to residency in the UK. The article also offers opportunities for comparison. Mexico will have an election soon. There's already talk about Nigerian and Russian elections. How will those candidates be selected? How do party functions in those countries compare with the UK?

Should YOU use this article? Do you want to add some depth on the topic to what your textbook offers? If you're teaching about the UK at the very beginning of the course, this could be the basis for a comparative exercise by comparing the UK and the USA. Do you want to use it as the takeoff point for a mini-research project? (Assign students the task of finding out how candidates are recruited and chosen in the other 5 AP countries.)

The second article was about minority ethnic groups in Iran, "Uppity minorities: Unrest in the provinces is rattling the government at the centre." This article may not offer enough new information to supplement your textbook. On the other hand it does a good job of describing how the Farsi-speaking majority acts to maintain its power. Deciding whether to use it in class or just treat it as teacher background reading can only be done within the context of your course.

The third article I recommended, "Atomised: Beijing no longer commands instant obedience from China's local authorities," illustrates what is often just a one sentence description of exceptions to the unitary model in China. But this article explains some of the political forces that give autonomy to local elites in their "dance" with the Beijing government. Those details help students understand (not just know) how a system as centralized as China's can allow local authorities latitude in some policy areas.

Should you use it?

• How much time do you have?
  
• How much reading are your students doing?
  
• Is the concept of a centralized unitary system one your students are having a difficult time grasping?
  
• Do you want to use it in class for discussion or assign it as a writing prompt for homework or do you want to use it as the basis for a free response question?
  
• Can you build a comparative exercise on this idea by comparing those local Chinese authorities with local councils in the UK? or with the regional authorities in Russia? or Nigerian governors?
  

More than anything else, trust yourself.

If you learn something from an article, share at least your learning experience with your students. Share the article if you can. Ask your students to talk about it or write about it. Ask your students to compare what's in the article with things similar and/or different in other countries.

posted by Ken Wedding @ 8:38 AM