Pedagogies for Citizenship, Activism and Just Futures
24 May 2024 · Haldane Room, UCL
The Centre for the Pedagogy of Politics (CPP) and the Climate Politics Cluster (CPC) at UCL’s Department of Political Science joined forces for a day focused on the role of citizenship and activism in pedagogy.
The event brought together academics and students to consider how education can support active citizenship and political engagement. The programme addressed inequalities in political participation, climate education and environmental action, the role of assessment in facilitating civic engagement, and the challenges of teaching global security, war and conflict.
Opening address
Professor Bryony Hoskins, University of Roehampton
Inclusive pedagogies for learning to politically engage: Addressing the gender and intersectional inequalities that are reproduced within the education system
Professor Hoskins examined inequalities in political interest and self-efficacy, how these are reproduced within education, and pedagogical approaches that might help address them. Drawing on longitudinal research and the G-EPIC project, she considered the implications for teaching political engagement in higher education.
Chair: Dr Kalina Zhekova, UCL
Panel: Pedagogies of climate education and environmental action
The first panel considered different approaches to climate education, including student participation, environmental stewardship, climate anxiety and the relationship between learning and environmental action.
Lewis Stockwell, University of Hertfordshire
Fostering Student-Staff Partnerships in Outdoor Environmental Higher Education
Professor Tristan McCowan, UCL
Reimagining curriculum and climate action in higher education
Dr Ashley Dodsworth, University of Bristol
Managing Climate Anxiety in Climate Education
Chair: Dr Fergus Green, UCL
Panel: From Assessment to Activism: How E-Portfolios facilitate students’ civic engagement
Dr Fergus Green, Dr Cathy Elliott and Yu Xuan Cheng, PPE student, UCL
Drawing on the use of e-portfolios in UCL’s Department of Political Science, this panel examined how assessment and feedback can encourage students’ civic engagement. The speakers considered how giving students greater choice over their research topics, forms of assessment and intended audiences can strengthen their motivation to learn and enable them to connect academic work with political engagement, particularly around environmental justice.
Chair: Dr John Wilesmith, UCL
Panel: Pedagogies of global (in)security and war: towards shared vulnerability and political agency
The final panel addressed the challenges of teaching global security, war and armed violence, including how educators and students can engage with difficult normative, ethical and emotional questions.
Dr Noele Crossley, UCL
Teaching Global Security Policy in the 2020s
Dr Kalina Zhekova and Mia Zawicka, PIR student, UCL
Co-teaching War and Conflict: The Value of Shared Discomfort for Students’ Political Engagement
The presentations considered how teaching can encourage critical engagement with global security policy, and how shared discomfort, vulnerability and staff and student collaboration can support political engagement beyond the classroom.
Chair: Dr J-P Salter, UCL