| This study is intended to determine what is contemporary practice in teaching undergraduate political geography courses in the United States. Essential content and the teaching techniques necessary to help students learn that essential content is termed pedagogic content knowledge (PCK), and this study contributes to a better understanding of PCK in political geography. This study used both a web-based survey and interviews with selected volunteers to acquire quantitative and qualitative data. Members of the Association of American Geographers' Political Geography Specialty Group (PGSG) who were faculty members at universities in the United States were invited to complete an anonymous 25 question survey. Participants were asked to volunteer to be interviewed, and ten volunteers were selected for hour-long interviews. There were several noteworthy findings in both the survey and interviews. In the survey results, three-quarters of the participants were male and half worked for a research university. Political geography is usually offered once a year as an intermediate or advanced elective, and does not have a prerequisite introductory geography course. Geography, political science, and international studies were the most important customers of a political geography course. Traditional topics such as nationalism, colonialism and geopolitics were the most common topics covered in a political geography course, and instructors cited a variety of theoretical influences on their selection of course content. Half of the participants did not use either the case method or simulations/role playing as teaching techniques. Of the most important issues in teaching political geography, choosing suitable course content, connecting political geography to current events, and poor student background in geography were the three most common responses.;For the interviews, key findings included cooperation between political geographers and political scientists, a desire to familiarize students with multiple theoretical approaches to political geography, and that it was necessary to limit the course's scope to one or two scales to make the material manageable. Interview subjects suggest that students typically found theoretical perspectives, recent political history, and some basic political geography terminology to be the hardest aspects of the course. |
