Teaching without preaching

I first taught political philosophy/theory in 2004 at the University of Edinburgh, though much of my past teaching was at Oxford, where I first taught in 2006. This teaching covered both contemporary & historical work (Plato > Michelle Moody-Adams), and was done on behalf of various colleges (Blackfriars, Brasenose, Exeter, Hertford, Queen’s, St. Hilda’s, University, Wadham). I also taught visiting international students over this period, including from Pomona and Wellesley, and in 2010 ran a delightful 'great books' course for a group of ‘AB scholars’ from Duke University, as organised by New College and The Department of Continuing Education.

Since joining Bristol in 2014, I've constructed three courses, starting with 'Political Concepts'  for 1st-years and 'The History of Western Political Thought' for 2nd-years. The first of these provides a general introduction to political theory, with the second taking in a sequence of 'great books', from Plato’s Republic to Wollstonecraft’s Vindication. In 2017, I then put together a rather unusual third-year unit called 'How to Win a Political Argument'. This has proved immensely rewarding, given all the collaborative activities it involves (e.g. manifestos, videos, speeches) and the range of guest speakers we’ve hosted (e.g. Marvin Rees & Marc Stears).

More recently, since 2021, I’ve also taught an online unit for the ECPR’s Methods School entitled ‘How to do political philosophy: Methods and Methodology’. This draws on my imminent book for Oxford University Press on the same subject, and supports in turn the work of the Standing Group in ‘Methods of Normative Political Theory I chair.

All this teaching has been fundamentally underpinned by my ‘methodological’ research, as well as a closely connected urge to ‘upskill’ students so they can really think and argue for themselves. The idea, at all times, is to explain to them exactly how arguments are constructed so they can then do the same. This makes for fun and experimental teaching, as well as ‘inclusive’ and ‘investigative’ learning in the current parlance. It’s also happily made for several prizes over the years, each of which has helped me push the message a little further regarding the importance of both political philosophy in general and methodology in particular (as well as defend fundamentally 'research-led’ teaching). These include winning the most votes in a 2016 ‘Best of Bristol’ competition to find our university’s ‘Best Lecturers’, winning the 2017 Students' Award for 'Outstanding Teaching' at the annual Bristol Teaching Awards, and most happily of all the 2021 Jennie Lee national career prize for outstanding teaching from the Political Studies Association (PSA).

For my view on why we should teach political philosophy in schools, see here.

For why it can help to be ‘experimental’, as well as collaborative, in such teaching, see here.

It was also a great pleasure to talk about my particular approach to teaching political philosophy at this exciting event at the University of York, as organised by Adam Fusco and Sara Vangoozen. With luck, there will soon be a publication coming out of this.