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This article uses new survey data to examine student preferences and experiences with active learning among a graduate student cohort across two key identity markers: international student status and gender. Our survey of students enrolled in a Master of International Relations program suggests that most view active learning favorably and believe it improves learning outcomes. We find that, contrary to conventional wisdom, international students prefer active learning to traditional lectures at the same levels as domestic students. Our findings also indicate that women prefer active learning as much as, and in some cases more than, men. We discuss potential reasons for these preferences and experiences and conclude with suggested avenues for future research.

Engaging with audiences and communities beyond academia is now a common practice for political scientists. Yet, political scientists rarely are trained in how to conduct public or policy engagement, and we know little about the impact that training programs have on their preparedness to communicate with the public and policy makers. In this study, we evaluate whether professional training equips scholars with the skills needed to perform public and policy outreach. We find that a four-day training program generates remarkably large increases in the number of participants reporting that they possess high levels of knowledge, preparation, and confidence for public and policy engagement. This finding suggests that investments in public-engagement training by universities and the discipline of political science have the potential to significantly boost public outreach by faculty members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article details a role-playing "citizenship simulation" used in a large graduate seminar offered by the Masters of International Relations (IR) faculty at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. While recognizing the need for a more systematic analysis of the relationship between class size and active learning strategies, this article offers an anecdotal reflection on the challenges faced when employing active learning in an IR course with growing enrollment numbers. We describe and analyze a simulation used in the graduate course to evaluate the feasibility and desirability of structuring large IR classrooms to include participatory group activities such as simulations. We also hope the simulation provides instructors with an effective sample design for simulations in their own larger courses.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many governments implemented social distancing requirements, lockdowns and stay-at-home orders. These caused unprecedented disruptions, especially in industries that often rely heavily on the labour of temporary migrants. As a result, temporary migrants were particularly disadvantaged by measures to safeguard population health. We critically scrutinise government policies related to temporary migrants in Australia during the pandemic. The Australian Government provided financial safety nets to individuals and families who were citizens and permanent residents, while deliberately excluding temporary migrants from such support. In contrast, efforts were made at the state level to compensate for this hardship. We trace how the Victorian Government ultimately came to provide financial support for temporary migrants. The case highlights how the interests of precarious members of society can go from being ignored to receiving the attention necessary to produce a policy change to meet their needs. With its emphasis on the role policy narratives play in shaping outcomes for temporary migrants, the analytical approach utilised here could inform future studies of migrant treatment in other contexts as well as studies focusing on other vulnerable and politically marginalised members of society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The International Security Studies Section (ISSS) of the International Studies Association aims to promote the study of global, international, regional, and national security—broadly conceived. Over the past decade, ISSS has also sought to improve diversity and inclusion for its membership, culminating in its Taskforce on Diversity in Security Studies. In this forum, taskforce organizers, researchers, and participants examine the ways in which ISSS has collected data and then acted to improve both experiences and outcomes for historically excluded scholars, using an intersectional approach but with a specific focus on race. By critically reflecting on the role of professional associations in combatting racism in academia, using the case study of ISSS, the forum has two aims. First, we hope that by sharing ISSS experiences and processes, we may encourage other professional associations to self-reflect on how they may contribute to racial injustice, as well as how they can reveal and counteract racial oppression. Second, rather than solely focusing on goals and outcomes, the forum also gives voice to personal perspectives of researchers and participants to highlight how it is people who ultimately make up the heart of efforts to challenge racism and discrimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased attention to racialized knowledge and methodological whiteness has swept the political science discipline, especially international relations. Yet an important dimension of race and racism continues to be ignored: the presence and status of scholars of color in the discipline. In contrast to other fields, there is little research on (under)representation of scholars of color in security studies, and no systematic studies of race and racial exclusion that center their voices and experiences. Building on scholarship that contends with the fundamental whiteness of academia and knowledge creation, we present results from a 2019 survey of members of the International Security Studies Section of the International Studies Association. The data show that scholars of color and white scholars experience the field in dramatically different ways; scholars of color report at greater rates feeling unwelcome, experiencing harassment, and desiring more professional development opportunities. Dozens of studies across academia support these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses new survey data to examine student preferences and experiences with active learning among a graduate student cohort across two key identity markers: international student status and gender. Our survey of students enrolled in a Master of International Relations program suggests that most view active learning favorably and believe it improves learning outcomes. We find that, contrary to conventional wisdom, international students prefer active learning to traditional lectures at the same levels as domestic students. Our findings also indicate that women prefer active learning as much as, and in some cases more than, men. We discuss potential reasons for these preferences and experiences and conclude with suggested avenues for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article compares the relative importance of political capital (in the form of membership in the Chinese Communist Party) and human capital (in the form of higher education) in urban China. Survey data from urban China strongly support two key elements of the intellectual New Class theory: intellectuals will have privileged access into the party, and the importance of education relative to political reliability will increase over time. The data also show how political capital and human capital are converted into high paying and prestigious jobs. There is also evidence of a separate path of career mobility: for the most socially prestigious jobs, a college degree - not a party card - is the key. Economic reforms of the post-Mao era are creating a gap between political power, on one hand, and social prestige and economic power, on the other. This gap can be expected to grow as the reforms continue.

This article details a role-playing "citizenship simulation" used in a large graduate seminar offered by the Masters of International Relations (IR) faculty at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. While recognizing the need for a more systematic analysis of the relationship between class size and active learning strategies, this article offers an anecdotal reflection on the challenges faced when employing active learning in an IR course with growing enrollment numbers. We describe and analyze a simulation used in the graduate course to evaluate the feasibility and desirability of structuring large IR classrooms to include participatory group activities such as simulations. We also hope the simulation provides instructors with an effective sample design for simulations in their own larger courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]