Political Engagement: Beyond Politics
1. Your Thoughts on Political Engagement
2. Defining Political Engagement
3. Why Integrate Political Engagement?
4. Concerns/Potential Barriers
5. Putting Political Engagement into Practice
Large Scale/Lecture Activities
Touchpoints (pdf) - Show them how the issues do affect all of them!
Common faculty concerns
“I don’t know anything about politics” or “I am not interested in politics.”
Another way to consider it:
Political engagement is about understanding policy issues, not necessarily “politics.” Such issues arise in many different forms that affect all of us including higher education funding, the arts, health care, and so forth. One does not need to know a lot about politics to raise and discuss these issues in your class.
“I am afraid of expressing a political bias to my students.”
Another way to consider it:
You don’t have to. As mentioned before, there is a difference between policy and politics. You can discuss an issue without taking a side, and not all social and policy issues are decided along political lines.
"Politics and political engagement projects just don’t fit with my curriculum.”
Another way to consider it:
Policy issues are found within all courses in all disciplines. Therefore, one does not have to create a class project or a major assignment to foster political engagement. Find the topics that pertain to your course and work in class activities, examples, discussion questions, additional readings to help show your students the applicability of your subject matter to the world around them. Later in this module you will find examples of activities that can be applied to any discipline and incorporated to classes of any size. Empowering students to think critically is an essential component of being politically engaged. This concept and skill can be easily introduced and fostered in any discipline and works to build efficacy and engagement across campus.
Most students are resistant because...
They are just not interested in political issues – “these topics are complex and boring”
Most students become more interested as they are exposed to political issues and see the connections to their lives. Show them these student comments from COM 110 students (students in these COM 110 sections were part of the Political Engagement Project)
They feel that political topics don’t affect them.
Students and faculty do not have to be involved in “politics” to understand that they perpetuate or solve political problems with their personal, day-to-day choices. Raising awareness, motivating discourse and influencing daily habits will encourage students to become better citizens and more engaged stewards of their worlds. Show them how these issues do affect all of them through "touchpoints" (pdf) – each touchpoint is a way that we all participate in and exert power over the political world around us.