Comprehensive Education Benefits: Teaching Students to Write Collaboratively in Political Science

Abstract

This paper proposes a paradigm shift from the traditionally systematic, rigid structures of thesis writing courses to favor an inclusive, fluid, and flexible approach that both centers on student needs and meets the professional demands of future graduates. An intentional move to amend the thesis writing course would (1) create the conditions for students to have a greater stake in their own writing, (2) establish a sense of a cohort and scholarly community, and (3) integrate students into the professor’s scholarly habits of writing. This comprehensive education approach is intended for application in upper-level undergraduate thesis courses. By increasing the student’s share in the writing and research process as collaborators, instructors can model the behaviors of scholarship and intellectual community, position ourselves as mentors, and substantially increase our own academic productivity. To elaborate upon this approach, I reflect upon my experience as a preceptor in a Senior Seminar Bachelor’s thesis course to provide a loose outline for fellow capstone thesis writing instructors.

Keywords:

• Undergraduate education
• cooperative learning
• collaboration
• writing instruction
• thesis writing

Notes

1 The use of male pronouns was the convention at the time of Freire's initial publication, but the framework is open to all.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jaira J. Harrington

Jaira J. Harrington is an Assistant Professor of Black Studies at the University of Illinois Chicago. Prior to this faculty position, Dr. Harrington served as a 2017–18 William J. Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholar in Brazil. Dr. Harrington earned her doctorate in Political Science in the Comparative Politics subfield at the University of Chicago. Her current research and writing focuses on the union organizing of domestic workers in Brasília, São Paulo, and Salvador, Brazil.