Building Political Discourse Skills: Students as Teachers

Abstract

In a highly polarized political environment, political discourse on divisive topics is all the more important. Heeding the many calls for higher education to teach political discourse skills, this study investigates the impact of political discourse lessons in a college-level, political science classroom. Further, it explores the effectiveness of student-peers as teachers. The study finds peers, compared to faculty, are better able to relate to students, and this strength is ideal for teaching subjects that require social connections such as the active listening and perspective taking techniques. Discussion of sensitive political topics can easily lead to discomfort and uneasiness. Our findings suggest that student learners may be more receptive to peer-leaders than to instructors when it comes to such situations. Further peer-teachers experienced increased comfort levels when involved in controversial political discussions and increased ability to engage in political dialogue.

Keywords:

• Political discourse
• classroom discussion
• student-instructors
• peer teaching
• critical thinking
• perspective taking
• active listening

Notes

1 Peer teachers in our study were required that to complete IRB training for human subjects and went through rigorous training to become qualified as peer-teachers (see Appendices A and B, supplementary material). While in many settings, peer-teachers also take part in assessment activities, our study limited peer teachers to providing classroom lectures on content.

2 This study received all required Institutional Review Board (IRB) approvals under IRB number FAC20180106E.

3 Non-peer, faculty members continued to teach all other course lessons.

4 See Appendix A (supplementary material) for details on research methodology and Appendix B (supplementary material) for details on student research training.

5 See Appendix A (supplementary material) for details.

6 The video is available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo2YF5n_D04

7 See Appendix A (supplementary material) for details.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lynne Chandler Garcia

Lynne Chandler Garcia is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Her areas of research within the scholarship of teaching and learning include civil discourse, empathy and efficacy in political behavior, and the art of pedagogy for underprivileged learners. Her foreign policy publications range in topics from military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, supply chain issues, space policy, and civil-military relations.

Stacy Ulbig

Stacy G. Ulbig currently holds the position of Professor of Political Science at Sam Houston State University. Her research focuses on questions about political psychology, political behavior, and media politics. She regularly teaches undergraduate courses in American Government, Texas Government, Attitudes & Behavior, Politics & the Media, and Statistical Methods.