Grant Reeher

Education for citizenship : ideas and innovations in political learning

Chapter 1 Education for Citizenship: Some Themes from Recent Innovations and Questions for the Future Chapter 2 Teaching American Politics Through Service: Reflections on a Pedagogical Strategy Chapter 3 Service Learning as Civic Learning: Lessons We Can Learn from Our Students Chapter 4 The Urban Agenda Project Chapter 5 Citizenship Courses as Life-Changing Experiences Chapter 6 Internships and Citizenship Chapter 7 Enhancing Citizenship Through Active Learning: Simulations on the Policy Process Chapter 8 Doing the Rights Thing: Tales of Citizenship and Free Speech Chapter 9 Teaching the Art of Public Deliberation: National Issues Forums on Campus Chapter 10 Democratizing the Classroom: The Individual Learning Contract Chapter 11 Wading in the Deep: Supporting Emergent Anarchies Chapter 12 Team-Taught Courses and Multidisciplinary Education for Citizenship Chapter 13 Using the Internet to Enhance Classroom and Citizenship Information Chapter 14 The Internet as a Tool for Student Citizenship

Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Getting and Keeping a Job at a Private Liberal Arts College, but Your Graduate Advisor Didn’t Tell You

The irony was so striking that it could not be lost on anyone. Sitting before us was a soon-to-be-minted Ph.D. candidate whom we all liked tremendously, and who had an incredibly strong academic record, both in research and teaching. Yet, as our panel read his letter of application and CV, which were displayed on an overhead projector, and as we discussed them in progressively greater detail and honesty, we found several aspects of his materials off-putting. Why did he phrase something THIS way, another THAT way, we asked him? Sometimes his decisions were driven by a concern he need not have had; other times he was being advised by his graduate department. We ended by agreeing tat although he SHOULD have been given a job interview, our hypothetical search process might have passed him over for inclusion on our short list.

Reform and Remembrance: The Place of the Private Sector in the Future of Health Care Policy

Although the nation failed during the past decade to enact large-scale, structural change in government health policy, it has seen health care in the private sector remodeled dramatically during the same period. In this article I argue that a new round of equally significant changes is quite possible, this time at the hands of the national government. More specifically, I argue that for a variety of reasons, both enduring and more recently born, support for the private sector and the market in health care is relatively weak; that given likely trends in costs, demographics, and inequalities, it is likely to get even weaker; and that in the potential coming crisis of the health care system, there will be a real opportunity for seizing the agenda and winning policy battles on the part of would-be reformers pushing large-scale, public sector-oriented changes that go well beyond the recent reform efforts directed at managed care and HMOs.

Getting a Job at a Teaching Institution—and Then Succeeding: A Q&A with Experienced Teacher-Scholars

T he December 2006 APSA report, “Trends in the Political Science Profession” ~Sedowski and Brintnall 2006; Brintnall 2005!, noted that the number of political science jobs posted on eJobs reached an all-time high for the academic year. Thirty-six percent of those jobs were in B.A.-granting institutions, institutions most likely to include a focus on liberal arts teaching. Similarly, results from the most recently available department chairs’ survey show that almost one-third of all graduates in 2002, including those in non-academic employment, obtained jobs in B.A. institutions ~Lopez 2003!. In response to these circumstances, the Political Science Education Section has, at recent APSA annual meetings, including 2007’s meeting, sponsored a short course titled, “Getting a Job at a Teaching Institution—and Then Succeeding!” For this article we have drawn on our experiences in the short course—and in interviewing, hiring, mentoring, and evaluating colleagues at a range of liberal arts colleges—to compile a list of frequently asked questions and their answers. B.A.-granting institutions are highly diversified, as evidenced by the authors’ own affiliations. Still, after much discussion, we are confident that the advice offered here is broadly applicable to colleges focusing upon the liberal arts and undergraduate education. However, applicants should always research the mission and the corresponding commitments of the institutions at which they are seeking employment. In working with individuals at the short course and on the job market, we have learned that many Ph.D. students and graduates are keen to work at teaching-focused institutions, but are unsure about how to translate their graduate experiences and teaching and research interests into a competitive application. One of the most striking aspects of our experiences is the lack of preparation provided by most graduate programs for these kinds of jobs, in terms of developing teaching skills, strategy, and overall professional development ~Deardorff et al. 2001!. Frequently, graduates lack appropriate mentoring about the values of liberal arts education and the most effective strategies for navigating the differences between teachingand research-focused institutions. In some cases, job applicants need to “remarket” themselves by re-composing cover letters and C.V.s and assembling teaching materials into an application package. In other cases, job applicants need a more comprehensive introduction into the culture of liberal arts teaching, a task made more difficult given growing demands to specialize. And it is important to recognize that once hired, success and happiness at a liberal arts teaching college are not guaranteed; graduate students need a better and more realistic understanding of what it is like to work in a teaching institution, including expectations for tenure, opportunities for professional growth, and strategies for balancing work and family. While not all of these issues are addressed in the questions and answers provided below, we hope that the Lanethea Mathews-Gardner is assistant professor of political science at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA, where she researches and teaches courses in American politics, gender and political behavior, and American political development. She would like to thank her Muhlenberg colleague, Dr. Brian Mello, for his thoughtful remarks about earlier versions of this article. She can be reached at mathews@muhlenberg.edu.