Who SoTLs Where? Publishing the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Political Science

Abstract

Political science, as a discipline, is a relative newcomer to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL).

Tracking the scholarship of teaching and learning

“…Thus, Gurung et al (2008) report on the findings of an American survey of psychology departments: despite our optimistic expectations, the survey respondents failed to report a prevailing sentiment of support for the "systematic, literature-based inquiry into processes and outcomes involved in teaching and learning" either among members of psychology departments or among the institutions that house them. (p. 257) Hamann, Pollock and Wilson (2009) took a different approach, analysing the articles published in three US-based political science journals that focused on the scholarship of teaching and learning. They found that such articles were disproportionately authored by women and/or junior faculty, which could be interpreted positively -as they do -as indicating a healthy future for research in this area, or negatively as suggesting it was of less interest and importance to senior or established members of politics departments.…”

“…Adcroft and Lockwood 2010, Frost andFukami 1997), mathematics(Bennett and Dewar 2012), nursing(Oermann 2014), occupational therapy(Hammel et al 2015), pharmacy(Peeters, Beltyukova and Martin 2013, Tofade, Abate and Fu 2014), philosophy(Riordan 2008), political science(Craig 2014, Hamann, Pollock and Wilson 2009, Trepanier 2017, psychology(Gurung et al 2008, Najdowski et al 2015, science(Rowland and Myatt 2014), social work(Grise-Owens, Owens and Miller 2016, Wehbi 2009), sociology…”

Distance education and the scholarship of teaching and learning in political science

“…We can only speculate why political scientists appear to be less interested in conducting research on teaching and learning with technology than on other pedagogical issues, such as simulations, for example. Hamann et al (2009) show that much of the SoTL research in Political Science, in the three journals that form the core of the analysis here (PS, JPSE, ISP), is conducted by tenure-earning teaching academics; oftentimes, those starting out their careers are younger, are socialized to the online environment and therefore perhaps find teaching and learning online less of an innovation that merits analysis. Certainly, future research should explore the reasons why online education is a relatively understudied subject in the discipline-specific pedagogical literature; a survey study, for instance, might provide answers that go beyond some initial speculation.…”

Advancing Teaching and Learning in Political Science: The Role of the American Political Science Association

“…While SoTL as a scholarly field of inquiry is a relative latecomer in political science, it has taken hold as a new subfield in the discipline over the last 10 to 15 years 'y APSA has taken an active role in promoting discussion of assessment, sharing of good practice, and framing of substantively solid approaches'. european political science: 13 2014 advancing teaching and learning in political science and is published in several disciplinary journals, including the Journal of Political Science Education, PS: Political Science & Politics, and International Studies Perspectives (see Hamann et al, 2009). Be sure to go to your MyAPSA profile on the APSA website and add Scholarship of Teaching and Learning as a subfield.…”