TLC at APSA Calls

Submissions are closed. 

The fourth “TLC at APSA,” the teaching and learning conference-within-a-conference, will take place Saturday, October 2, 2021, in Seattle, WA, as part of the APSA Annual Meeting. This full-day event seeks to promote the scholarship of teaching and learning, equip faculty with new techniques and resources for teaching, and enhance the role of teaching in the discipline of political science.

Please join us for this gathering, which will provide a highly interactive forum for scholars to share innovative tools for political science education and research on the scholarship of teaching and learning. In keeping with the overall Annual Meeting theme of “Promoting Pluralism,” this year’s TLC at APSA theme is “Teaching Pluralism through Political Science Education.” We perceive pluralism, in the widest possible way, to represent a diversity of ideas, experiences and identities. Teaching pluralism builds classrooms and environments that encourage students to develop a deeper understanding along with tolerance of diverse ideological thought. It looks to create communities inclusive of experiences across the spectrum of human abilities, gender identities and sexual orientations. It makes space for the identities and aspirations of members of varied ethnic, religious and linguistic communities. We are particularly interested in proposals that explore the ways in which we teach and model the principles of pluralism for the 21st century. 

There will be two presentation formats: paper presentations and workshops. Papers will be presented in one of four track working groups: 

• Civic Engagement Education
• Simulations & Games
• Technology and Innovative Pedagogy in the Classroom
• Promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Classroom

While the four groups reflect previous TLC tracks, the intent is for all four to emphasize the plurality of voices across polities and learning settings as well as innovations that foster and augment inclusion of diverse voices to stimulate student learning and discovery.

Paper proposals are welcome on a variety of topics, including innovative pedagogical methods and techniques, assessment, experiential learning, simulations, curriculum development, deliberation in the physical classroom and online as well as in community engaged pedagogies, the impact and influence of diversity and difference(s) on inclusive instruction, and more. Accepted papers will be presented in a working group “track session” format similar to the APSA Teaching and Learning Conference.

Workshops should be designed to be highly interactive and provide hands-on experience, demonstrating a learning tool or technique that participants could immediately implement in the classroom. Workshops are 90 minutes and examples include: creating campus-wide civic engagement initiatives, using in-class debate to enhance student learning, and techniques for discussing difficult issues in the classroom. 

We invite proposals from all educators who teach political science and related subjects—university and college faculty, administrators, high school teachers, graduate students, research scholars, and others. We especially encourage proposals from community college faculty who play a key role in promoting pluralism. All participants will need to register for the 2021 APSA Annual Meeting in order to attend.