Diversity Across the Curriculum
A Guide for Faculty in Higher Education
Edited by
Jerome Branche John W Mullennix Ellen R. Cohn University ofPittsburgh
Diversifying a Political Science
Core Class: American Political Process
Reinhard Heinisch
A
merican Political Process (APP) is one of those courses that appears to be easy
but in reality is quite challenging to adapt to the agenda of diversity and
inclusiveness. Unlike classes in geology or physics, this introductory course on
American government seems to be a natural fit for the major themes of the
diversity agenda. Where else if not in such a class would students be exposed to
the struggle for equal rights or the history of slavery and segregation? Which other
course would naturally cover important Supreme Court rulings on civil rights? In
fact, standard textbooks routinely devote at least one chapter to diversity-related
themes that can be readily incorporated into such a course.
The Challenges When Adapting APP _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __
The primary challenge of teaching APP is precisely that it may be overwhelmed
by the expectation of what this course can do to incorporate issues of diversity. In
short, APP may be expected to accomplish that which most other courses cannot:
to serve as a principal means of diversifying the curriculum. At the University of
Pittsburgh-Johnstown, APP faces a series of additional challenges. Limited
resources dictate that it must be a large course, drawing regularly several sections
of more than 80 students. In addition, the class is a popular elective that allows
students to satisfy a general education requirement. APP is also intended as the
introduction to the political science major and, as such, a prerequisite for most
other courses in the department. A further complicating factor lies in the varied
academic backgrounds of our student population. More selective or less
discerning institutions may instead decide to benchmark higher or lower when
setting learning objectives and assessing course outcomes. A final difficulty is the
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somewhat homogeneous and culturally conservative student body and insular
nature of the school's setting. As a comprehensive institution in rural western
Pennsylvania that places an emphasis on the professions, the University of
Pittsburgh-Johnstown tends to draw more utilitarian-minded students than those
of the typical liberal arts college, who may be more receptive to a diversity agenda.
The Original Course Outline
The course is traditionally taught to provide an overview of the most important
features of American politics. It is extremely wide ranging in scope, stretching
from 17 th-century English philosophy to Social Security, from the Federalist
Papers to the American presidency and Watergate, from campaigns and elections
to the court system and foreign policy. A special emphasis is placed on the
constitutional process and the institutions of government. The course must also
review familiar events and dates from American history because students often
lack any knowledge of even the most basic facts and concepts. Naturally, there
also used to be a segment on civil rights, but it was merely one of many topics, all
of which stood in relative isolation from each other. This section appeared
generally about halfway into the course at an appropriate juncture between
covering the institutions and societal aspects of American politics. Yet such a
treatment of the subject matter was deeply dissatisfYing from the standpoint of
raising awareness about a history of discrimination as well as the growing
complexity of contemporary American society.
As an alternative, it would have been possible to rely on radical textbooks and
emphasize more of a history-from-below approach. In such versions, however, the
founding fathers often become cartoon figures, presented as little more than self­
righteous elitists and slaveholders driven primarily by economic self-interest. Such
accounts frequently gloss over both the historical context and the fact that the
system created by rhe framers of the U.S. Constitution, however elitist and
flawed, contained rhe means of redressing the injustices contained therein.
Radical perspectives and even polemics can certainly be stimulating and, thus,
excellent reaching tools, but they require students that already be more familiar
with the traditional view than is the case here. In fact, an all too radical approach
would probably result in a backlash by alienating students socialized in a
culturally more conservative environment.
The Revised Course
Extensive discussions in the context of a university-sponsored diversity seminar were
invaluable in devising solutions to the challenges just described. The task was to
maintain the course as a complex introduction to the varied aspects of American
government that would satisfY both the beginner and the student in the major but
that would nonetheless provide a meaningful and substantive exposure to questions
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of cultural, ethnic, and gender diversity. The key was to weave this agenda into the
very fabric of the course without succumbing to simplistic revisionism.
Ordinary Lives-Political Lives
In its new format the course begins with the distribution of a representative sample
of some 80 biographies. These are brief one-page sketches containing the
demographic and personal information of individuals who vary in terms of age,
gender, education level, ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, occupation, and
nationality of birth. Viewing the world from these other identities, students are
allowed to imagine what expectations these people would have from politics and
what political interests they would pursue. For many students it is a stretch to
imagine a reality beyond their own. It is important to remember, however, that the
point here is not to achieve a nuanced reality but to raise the students' consciousness
and start the learning process. This has proved a valuable pedagogical tool used in
many modern museums and simulation competitions (e.g., Model United
Nations). Taking the Rawlsian notion of justice as the point of departure, the class
debates the foundations of government and requires students to consider what lives
they would lead with their new identities and what kinds of ambitions and realistic
opportunities they would have given their biographical backgrounds.
Once we establish certain connections between distinct demographic features
and political interests, we approach the question pondered by framers of the
Constitution and their philosophical forebears, particularly Thomas Hobbes and
John Locke: What kind of government would be the right one for people that fit
the Hobbesian or Lockean view of human nature-"man" seen as a rational, self­
interested maximizer of wealth whose life without government and, thus, order
would be nasty, brutish, and short. This exercise is not intended to expose the
flawed nature of the constitutional process but to show that the founders of the
American model were bound by their time and horizon of experiences, which
invariably shaped their thinking and the documents they created. It becomes thus
an even more astounding tribute whenever the foundational documents
transcend their historicism and aim for a true universalism. In this manner, the
students can understand how different experiences can result in different goal
formation and, thus, different political interests.
The course shows how the constitutional framework filters and eliminates
certain political ambitions while it strengthens and focuses others, thus boosting
(intentionally or unintentionally) the welfare and well-being of some groups over,
or at the expense of, others. We learn how certain values and concepts (e.g.,
individualism, self-reliance, and autonomy) are given greater preference in the
American narrative than others. The discussion of the institutions of
government-where they come from, who set them up, and by what mechanism
they decide whether an interest is legitimate-leads students to realize that, at its
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inception, the Constitution reflected the intentions and interests of a property­
owning elite of Protestant Anglo-Saxon origin. Its genius, however, lay in the
flexibility and potential that had yet to be realized in a protracted struggle by
different groups for equal rights and equal protection.
A substantial segment is devoted to civil rights. Here we examine in detail the
situation of women and African-Americans and both groups' struggle for greater
equality. Students are also encouraged to investigate the history of other groups,
such as gays and lesbians, Latinos, Chicanos, Asian Americans, or people with
disabilities-for this purpose extra credit options are made available. Students also
complete assignments in which they research advocacy groups and their agenda
and investigate specific questions of the history of civil rights (the Underground
Railroad, the Jim Crow laws, the Comstock laws and reproductive information,
landmark civil rights cases, etc.) . Invited speakers and videos augment the class
materials (e.g. , segments from the PBS series Eyes on the Prize or from MaLcolm X).
Whenever possible, students are encouraged to attend relevant lectures (e.g., one
by Bill Means, a Lakota Indian leader).
The subsequent segment on civil liberties and the courts serves as an
introduction to the American legal system. Issues of diversity can be easily
incorporated by discussing the courts' historical role in addressing and remedying
discrimination when political institutions proved unable or intransigent. To
emphasize diversity in a context other than the specific issue of civil rights, I invite
professionals of minority backgrounds to speak to the class about their work for
the government-! frequently rely, for example, on an African-American friend
who is a U.S. assistant district attorney to help discuss the criminal justice system.
stratification in American society translates into politics and subsequently
influences public policy. The course covers public policy by emphasizing social
and economic policy, "other" domestic policy, and foreign and security policy. In
each area, the following questions are raised and discussed: What are the goals and
means of the policy? Whose interests are served? Who has input? Which ideas and
values influence the selection of objectives, mechanisms, and perceived solutions?
In economic policy the students learn, for example, about trade-offs between
economic policy choices. This segment also allows for an extensive discussion of
both social programs (e.g., Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid) and the varying
conceptions of poverty and welfare. Particularly in policy areas such as health care,
crime and law enforcement, education, and social protection, the issues of diversity
and equal access can be easily made a focus of class discussion. Foreign and security
policy, by contrast, tends to have less direct connection to diversity. Nonetheless,
the disproportional contribution by minorities, immigrants, and lower income
Americans to national security through military service presents itself as an
important ropic for discussion. Particularly, in light of the United States' Middle
East policy and the pervasive media coverage of terrorism and radical Islam, it may
be useful to discuss such issues in a broader global political context. It is also helpful
to get students to consider the situation of Muslims in the United States. To gain a
better understanding, we invite members of the local Muslim community for an
unscripted forum of exchange with our students. This affords both students and
community members a chance to interact and address mutual misconceptions.
Politics and the People
The revised course set out with an ambitious set of goals. As any instructor will
know, the extent to which all objectives can be achieved depends on the students
and on a variety of factors that change from semester to semester. Sometimes, there
are dominant political issues that can strengthen the focus on diversity or detract
from it. Generally, I have found that students respond positively to the course
revision. Most gratifying is that there has been no indication that the students feel
they have some political agenda thrust on them. By contrast, they see these
questions as a natural extension of what a course in American politics ought to be
about. It is undoubtedly helpful if those instructors who incorporate diversity
issues into their classes cooperate and coordinate with each other, thus reinforcing
the students' experience and rendering the effect more powerful. Most crucially,
any discussion of diversity must be substantive, pertinent, and interesting enough
to stand on its own. Today's media-savvy and jaded student audiences will quickly
detect ideological zeal or self-righteous high-mindedness and rhus rune our. This,
however, would ultimately do more harm than good despite the instructor's most
Herculean effons ro expose students to this rich and important topic.
Given the course's expanded emphasis on diversity, there are, by necessity, topics
that require trimming and tweaking without being omitted entirely. Issues such as
campaigns and elections, political parties,-the media, and lobbying and interest
groups were thus fused together into a larger bloc titled "Politics and the People."
The unifying feature of these different issue areas is that they all are positioned at
the intersection of government institutions and the public at large. Thus, it is not
difficult to address issues of diversity by returning again to the concept of political
filtering or mainstreaming discussed earlier. It provides an understanding of why
the interests of certain groups are more readily taken up more and acted on than
those of others.
Interest articulation and aggregation also play an important role when
discussing public policy, the final part of the course. Here the aforementioned
biographies help address the common misperception that "the people" represent a
unified whole and that divisions among them are not genuine. Showing the PBS
do cumentary Class is designed to highlight the importance of how class
Conclusion-------------------­