University Administrative Areas

Permanent link for this community

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1

Discipline-specific teaching and pedagogical development: a missing piece in Canadian political science graduate education
(2024) Auer, Meagan; Sammons, Elise; D’Orazio, Dax; Jaipaul, Noelle; Reist, Rissa; Murphy, Michael P. A; Hyder, Misbah
New graduates from Ph.D. programs have historically felt unprepared to enter university classrooms as primary instructors. In recent years, universities have responded with the introduction of optional, interdisciplinary teaching training programs. These programs offer important training opportunities but are not enough to challenge an academic culture that often undervalues teaching. In this chapter, we argue for the value of discipline-specific teaching training by reflecting on our shared experience building Teaching and Pedagogy in Political Science (TaPPS), a graduate student-led working group in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta. The group’s broad mission is to cultivate a teaching and learning community among faculty and graduate students in Political Science as a means of responding to the need for discipline-specific training and challenging the systemic undervaluing of university teaching. Through the chapter, we develop a roadmap that others can use to establish a similar initiative.