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Political Science in Interdisciplinary Team Taught Courses
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Politics is everywhere. This would seem to make political science a natural for
interdisciplinary courses. Yet the ubiquitous nature of politics also creates a challenge
for a political scientist wanting to work with others to create an interdisciplinary course.
While politics is everywhere, political science is not. Giving the political angle of an
issue or subject may enlighten students on the politics around an issue, but provide
nothing in the way of political science education. In this paper I look at the research
surrounding interdisciplinary and team taught courses, and relate it to my experiences
doing team taught experimental courses in order to develop a strategy of integrating
political science into interdisciplinary coursework.
Part one of this paper is a review of what interdisciplinary courses are, research as
to what makes for a successful interdisciplinary, team taught course. Part two of the
paper presents examples from two different team taught interdisciplinary courses in
which I was one of the instructors. The first, taught twice so far, is “Modern Times: Art,
Music, Politics and the Great War,” co-taught with an Art Historian (Dr. Sarah Maline)
and Music professor (Dr. Steve Pane). The second, taught once, is “Children and
Political Violence,” co-taught with an Early Childhood Education professor, Dr. Mellisa
A. Clawson. From these examples I explore the development and execution team taught
interdisciplinary courses, and then move to detail the way in which political science can
fit into such courses. Interdisciplinary team teaching, while challenging and labor
intensive, can be an immensely rewarding experience whereby one can integrate different
forms of disciplinary knowledge, gain a holistic understanding of a theme or issue, and
reflect critically on the nature of ones’ own discipline.
Why Interdisciplinarity?
According to Klein and Newell, “In interdisciplinary courses, whether taught by
teams or individuals, faculty interact in designing a course, bringing to light and
examining underlying assumptions and modifying their perspectives in the process.”
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Lattuca notes that “Conceptual interdisciplinary courses assume that a variety of
perspectives must be brought to bear on a particular issue or problem. Various
disciplines are included in these courses as needed to explain the topic under
examination.”
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James R. Davis defines interdisciplinary courses as involving “efforts, at
least to some degree, to bring about mutual integration or organization of concept and
methodologies.
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Davis goes on to describe the team taught interdisciplinary courses:
“The develop a common syllabus, they struggle to integrate their various
perspectives, they come to agreement about the ordering of topics, and they
intermingle their teaching activity throughout the course. They take primary
responsibility for individual class sessions, but sometimes two or more faculty are
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Please note that after the text of the paper I have included as appendices the syllabi for the two courses,
the collegial agreement on First Year Seminars and how “Children and War” would meet the requirements,
as well as assignment guides and other selected course material.
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Julie Thompson Klein and William H. Newell, “Advancing Interdisciplinary Studies,” p. 12.
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Lisa Lattuca, Creating Interdisciplinarity p. 96.
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James R. Davis, Interdisciplinary Courses and Team Teaching, p. 5.
Convention