Abstract
Like many in the academic trenches of International Studies (IS), my approach to pedagogy has evolved less by design than by circumstance, reflecting evolving research interests, pressing departmental requirements, and their intersection with various teaching roles. This journey has led from a conventional training in International Relations, taught in relatively liberal (though more ‘British’, and therefore historical and interpretive) programs, to a consistent engagement with interdisciplinary initiatives and approaches. It has led to a deep appreciation for the importance but also the challenges of interdisciplinarity. In this chapter, I discuss both the value and the difficulties associated with interdisciplinary pedagogy, and some implications for the practices of those incorporating it. Interdisciplinarity is valuable because of the purchase it provides on the kinds of issues our students must confront, and the excitement it generates in the classroom. It is challenging because of the difficulties in establishing a discursive baseline for classroom exchange, and the dangers of superficiality and confusion. To concretize the rewards and challenges of interdisciplinarity in IS pedagogy, I briefly reflect on two course-based experiences. They underscore the importance of curriculum and course content, as well as the composition of course membership in creating successful interdisciplinary encounters and deepened understanding.
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Notes
- 1.
I am using the terminology of ‘international studies’ to denote the broad array of scholarly foci and orientations encompassed in academic associations like the International Studies Association, and ‘International Relations’ to denote the self-conscious subfield that has usually (though not exclusively) been sited within the academic subject of Political Science.
- 2.
Cox’s famous distinction between problem-solving and critical theory juxtaposes theories that take the existing world order as given and seek to understand how to operate within it, thereby reflecting an implicitly conservative bias, and critical theories that seek to understand how the dominant world order came to be, and what possibilities for change exist within it (Cox 1981, pp. 126–155).
- 3.
This (and several other of the implications to follow) reflect the model used by the Dalhousie College of Sustainability and its Environment, Sustainability and Society degree program, which must be taken in combination with a second major field.
- 4.
Ironically, this challenge of sustaining innovative pedagogical practices has become a key challenge for the Dalhousie College of Sustainability.
- 5.
In order to maximize the ability to draw on these diverse backgrounds and strengths, it is of course vital that they be known. There are many ways to do this, but I always begin by asking students to provide, on a cue card, some basic information concerning their backgrounds, particular interests in relation to the subject matter, and experiences related to it.
- 6.
Among the nearly 60 specialist groups convened by the British Political Studies Association, there is one devoted to Sport and Politics, but its members feel very much at the margins of the field. See https://www.psa.ac.uk/psa-communities/specialist-groups/sport-and-politics.
- 7.
For one effort to explain this history of neglect, see Black (2008, pp. 468–469).
- 8.
On these distinctions, see Cooper et al. (2013).
- 9.
“Deviant” as reflected in its almost complete absence from the curricula and texts of international studies/international relations programs globally.
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Black, D.R. (2021). Beyond the Box: Opportunities and Challenges of Interdisciplinarity in International Studies Pedagogy. In: Smith, H.A., Hornsby, D.J. (eds) Teaching International Relations in a Time of Disruption. Political Pedagogies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56421-6_8
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