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Philadelphia
Higher Education
Network for Neighborhood Development
3451 Walnut Street, Suite
P-117, Philadelphia, PA
19104-6205
215-573-2379 / 215-573-1134 fax
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Political
Science 291: Faculty-Student
Collaborative Seminar in
Citizenship
and Democratic Development Of
Penn Undergraduates
Faculty: Dr. Henry
Teune, hteune@sas.upenn.edu
Teaching Assistant:
Deirdra Stockmann, deirdra@sas.upenn.edu
Subject/Discipline: Political
Science
School: University
of Pennsylvania
Project Area:
Spring 2004
Political Science 291
Spring
2004
Professor Lee Benson
Tuesdays, 2-5pm
Dean Michael Delli Carpini
Professor Ira Harkavy
Professor William Harris, II
Professor Matthew Hartley
Professor Rogers Smith
Professor Henry Teune
Faculty-Student
Collaborative Seminar in
Citizenship
and Democratic Development
Of
Penn Undergraduates
For
several decades, universities and colleges have been studying their
impact on
the development of undergraduates in respect to a variety of
characteristics
and achievements. To our knowledge,
however, no systematic study has yet been made of how, and the extent
to which,
colleges influence the democratic development of their students,
despite
mission statements in college catalogs which almost invariably claim to
develop
“responsible democratic citizens.” To
remedy that neglect, Political Science 291 has been created.
PS
291 will function as an idea generating, research-focused, seminar
which uses
Penn as a case study to assess the contributions universities and
colleges now
make to democratic education and democratic political development. It is an interdisciplinary seminar with
participation of faculty from across the university including political
science, history, communications, sociology and education.
The seminar aims to develop good answers to
three critically-important questions:
1.
How
should we define the complex
concepts “democratic students” and “democratic citizens?”
2.
As
undergraduate education now is
conducted, does four years at Penn significantly increase the
inclination and
ability of students to function as lifelong, responsible, active,
effective,
democratic citizens?
3.
What
changes in undergraduate
education could Penn make to increase the positive impact it has on the
democratic development of its students?
To
help answer those questions, students will collaboratively design and
conduct
research experiments. The main written
assignment will be an evaluation of research instruments
collaboratively
established and created by members of the seminar.
Similar
seminars are being developed in a variety of universities and colleges
in the United States
and in other countries. The results of the
different seminars will be
exchanged, critically evaluated, and perhaps used to generate a basic
research
instrument which could be appropriately adapted for different colleges
and
universities in different countries and coordinated by the
international
consortium of universities headquartered at Penn conducting a global
research
program on Universities as Sites of Citizenship.
Admission
to the seminar will be limited and students who believe that they can
contribute to its work and might benefit from participating in it are
invited
to apply for admission. Requests for
admission should be mailed to: Professor Henry Teune, Undergraduate
Chair,
Political Science at hteune@sas.upenn.edu. Requests for admission should contain a brief
statement of why students are interested in the seminar and their
possible
contributions to its work.
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