teaching

How to encourage reading

November 19, 2016 / teaching /

As we start a new academic year, as faculty it’s worth thinking about our teaching strategies. Angela Jenks has a great piece, “Why don’t students read?” in Cultural Anthropology. What I like about the essay is both its honesty, and its practical discussion of tips to ensure that our students do the reading. In most of my classes, I now have a weekly reading quiz, which asks a simple question based on the reading, and entails a one to three paragraph response. I also agree with Jenk’s point that we can’t assign too much. Although we need to hold student’s accountable for the work, but also need to have realistic recommendations. Lastly, there is no substitute for an engaging book or essay. Yes, it’s still a struggle to have students read, but when we choose readings it’s also important to be mindful of what’s realistic to ask of our students at this point in their college experience. Want to see some syllabi for International and Global Studies classes? Here are some choices, including a syllabus for an introductory class. If you are using our textbook for the “Introduction to International Studies” course, we also have exam questions. Rosa David has also created a set of recommended films for an introductory course in the field.

Shawn Smallman, 2016

10 tools you need to teach a Global Studies class

October 8, 2016 / teaching /

For those of you who are about to teach an “Introduction to Global Studies” or “Introduction to International Studies class, here are some resources that will make teaching the class easier:

  1. A syllabus for a face to face class.
  2. An online syllabus for the introductory course.
  3. This map of U.S. security interests is popular with many instructors who want their students to explore how the U.S. government views the world. In the post, I describe a classroom exercise based on the map.
  4. Instructions for a chocolate tasting class activity.
  5. Instructions for a blog review with a rubric.
  6. Recommended Films and Documentaries for International Studies 101
  7. Learning outcomes for International and Global Studies students.
  8. A short definition of International and Global Studies. You can find a longer discussion of how to define International and Global Studies at this post. This post discusses the difference between International and Global Studies.
  9. A response paper assignment and rubric for an introductory class.
  10. A link to our textbook, which is a relatively inexpensive book and is now in its second edition. The book has an online instructor’s manual, with resources such as exam questions, chapter resources and activities. It’s also one of the most widely used textbooks in the field.

Lastly, you might want to bookmark this blog, for more teaching tips, resources, book reviews and syllabi.

Shawn Smallman, 2016

Teaching about the Arab World

August 11, 2016 / Arab World, teaching / , ,

After the first edition of our textbook was published in 2011, Kim Brown and I were surprised by how quickly world events required changes to some chapters. For example, when we wrote the first edition, the energy chapter had no mention of fracking. In the space of two years, fracking completely changed energy trends not only within the United States but also globally. In terms of regions, the area in which there has been the greatest change politically and socially over the last fifteen years has been the Arab World, particularly after the invasion of Iraq. The New York Times has a new article, “Fractured Lands: how the Arab World came Apart,” which represents long-form journalism at its best. The work puts the recent political turmoil in the region in a historical context, while using individuals’ stories to convey the experience of nations. It is the kind of writing that takes months of fieldwork to complete, and is all too rare in this age when print journalism is in decline. …

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The struggle to define Global Studies

June 24, 2017 / teaching /

I think that it’s helpful to have a succinct definition of Global Studies. I’ve discussed possible definitions before in this blog, but my thoughts have evolved with time. I’ve also tried to come up with an answer that’s a single sentence.: “Global Studies is the interdisciplinary exploration of global issues in a way that refers to globalization in all its forms, whether economic, political, cultural, digital or biological.”

I think that to study any major issue entails an interdisciplinary perspective, which is why I’ve placed that term at the forefront of the definition. I also think that it is helpful to use the term “global” rather than “international” for two reasons. First, anything that happens in another country can be conceived of as “international,” no matter how limited in scope. Second, what is distinct in our field is how it looks at processes at a global level, which entails some engagement or relevance beyond any single world region. This approach entails a broader perspective than that entailed by an issue that may cross only a single border.

Shawn Smallman, May 2016

 

Global Maps

August 2, 2016 / teaching / ,

A recent article in the Washington Post titled “Six Maps that Will Make You Rethink the World,” has great maps of everything from the Arctic’s geography to global population distribution. I think that the map of what might happen in a world that is four degrees warmer is particularly intriguing. Based on the comments, some people viewing the maps viewed them as a critique of the current Westphalian global order; many people commented that language and religion still matter, and were upset that the maps did not sufficiently reflect this. The fact that many people had this response in itself indicates how maps matter to how people view the world.

Shawn Smallman, 2016

Careers in the Foreign Service

August 2, 2016 / teaching /

When Kim and I were writing the textbook, one concern that some external reviewers had was that the final chapter on careers was “too vocational.” I’ve never believed that there was a contradiction between educating students for careers, and educating them for citizenship. Kim and I argued that the chapter was important, and it has remained. Students have often thanked me after the class for having included material on careers in the text. I think that -especially as a greater burden has fallen on students to pay for their own education- we have a responsibility to educate them about the different career pathways open to them, so I always like to share information related to jobs. Here is a link to a great article by Gareth Evans on “How to build a career in foreign relations.”

Shawn Smallman, 2016

Syllabus for an online course on Digital Globalization

June 24, 2017 / cyber, teaching / , , ,

This winter quarter I taught a fully-online class on Digital Globalization, which I greatly enjoyed. I believe that Digital Globalization is a form of globalization that is every bit as powerful as economic, political and cultural globalization. Of course, it is also inextricably linked to all these other forms of globalization. It’s strange, therefore, that has remained largely invisible in the literature in the field.

One point that struck me from the class is that the media gives a great deal of attention to the question of surveillance by governments, but my students are every bit as concerned about surveillance by corporations such as Facebook. I had also assumed that my students would be digital natives. Many of them, however, felt a great digital gap between themselves and younger siblings, who spend a great deal of time on social media, such as Instagram and Snapchat. They appreciated the chance to learn about topics such as Bitcoin that they had heard about in the media, but knew little about. From my students, I learned that there was a Bitcoin ATM in Portland, as well as bars and apartment buildings that accepted Bitcoin.

A few notes about the syllabus that follows. The majority of the content, including almost all of the videos, were obtained from my library’s Streaming Video and Music database. For this reason, I haven’t included the links here, because they would only work for people with accounts at my university. As you can see, I’m also beginning to use modules for online courses. In this particular case, I began with two weeks focusing on the individual (social media, the generation gap, music and art); two weeks focusing on institutions and the economy (Uber, Airbnb, the sharing economy, Bitcoin, 3D printers); and two weeks focused on the nation-state level (surveillance, privacy, encryption). For the fourth module of the course, students do three weeks of independent study on of the topics that they’ve explored in the class, to answer a key question. The goal of this module is to develop learner agency.

The final week of the course content students share a digital artifact, which is typically a Google Slideshow. I’ve done this in previous online classes, and it’s always very popular with the students, who take a great deal of pride in their work. I like the assignment because it in a sense it creates a co-constructed syllabus, in which students are responsible for their own learning. Lastly, for multiple reasons I did not allow students to do any research for this course on the Dark Web; that is, they could not research in areas of the Web that they could only access via a TOR, ITP or Freenet browser.

Shawn Smallman, 2016 …

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Maps of U.S. Trade

August 2, 2016 / economics, teaching, U.S. Foreign Policy / , , ,

I recently came across this great blog post by Yuka Kato, which has beautiful maps illustrating U.S. trade with different regions of the world. This would be a great tool in classes that address international political economy, including an Introduction to International and Global Studies class. You can also find other great maps for an introductory classroom on the blog.

Shawn Smallman, 2016

Rubric for a slideshow

August 2, 2016 / teaching / ,

This quarter I am teaching a fully online class on Digital Globalization. The final assignment in the class is a “digital artifact,” which for most students is a Google Slideshow. The work for this assignment is scaffolded through the class, and includes peer review. These slideshows are the only content for the final week of the course. I have done this before, and the assignment is very popular with students. My intent for the assignment is to develop learner autonomy, by making them responsible for the course content.

My teaching philosophy values explicit instruction, so I am a firm believer in rubrics, which help to convey clear expectations for assignments. Here is a rubric with content that I developed for this particular slideshow assignment. I have adapted the format of another rubric that a colleague shared with me, although I do not know who originally created this format, and so cannot give them credit. I like this format because it provides information based on a visual ranking, rather than assigning numbers.

Shawn Smallman, 2016. …

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Extensive Reading Assignments in the International Studies Classroom

September 18, 2015 / teaching / ,

Guest Blog Post:
Kimberley Brown
Portland State University

Extensive reading involves a high level of independence for the reader. Texts are assigned and students read on their own, frequently using study questions or reader-response guides. The primary purpose of this type of assignment in a typical lower division undergraduate course is to encourage students to read heavily using a text that draws them in. This post describes one extensive reading assignment used in some sections of our introductory course. The text is The Blue Sweater. It is a memoir written by a women actively engaged in numerous development ventures, who ultimately created her own outreach organization: the Acumen Fund. The title comes from her finding a sweater she had worn as a child in the US being worn by a young child in Africa. The cycle of the sweater’s travels begins her memoir.

I chose to encourage students to become familiar with an individual who chose to make a difference. Her perspective on the power of business ventures to ensure independence and self-help is less represented in many globalization texts than critiques of neo-liberal strategies and was chosen specifically for this reason.

The full APA citation is Novogratz, J. 2009. The Blue Sweater. New York: Rodale Press. …

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