How to Teach Foreign Policy to College Students

College students are ready for more in-depth and abstract concepts regarding foreign policy. In fact, most college students who take classes dealing with foreign policy do so as part of a political science major. As such, they are already pre-disposed to having an interest in the subject. A college level class in foreign policy offers plenty of opportunity for lively discussion and debate. If you would like to teach foreign policy to college students, there are a few things you should know.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Teach Foreign Policy to College Students

1. Make sure you have at least a Master's degree in political science. You can teach at most community colleges with this type of degree. Most universities, however, require a Ph.D. of their instructors.
2. Prepare an unbiased lecture. No matter what your personal opinions are on foreign policy, keep them out of your presentation. Show both sides of an issue so that students can form their own opinions. However, if they ask you about your personal opinion, you can tell them.
3. Remember that visual aids help reinforce the lecture. Find as many charts, graphs and maps as you can. Copy these and hand them out at the beginning of your lecture.
4. Encourage discussion of foreign policy issues during class. College students are there to expand their minds and learn about the world. Let them ask questions and express their opinions to you and to each other. Just make sure you act as a moderator to keep things civil, especially regarding contentious or divisive foreign policy issues.
5. Require your students to read about foreign policy issues. Their reading can come from newspapers or online. This will ensure they keep up to date on current developments in this area. Make sure they are actually reading by requiring them to turn in weekly summaries of what they have read.

Tips & Warnings

• Unlike high school teachers, college teachers need to have an advanced degree in the subject they teach. This means those with political science degrees teach political science, history degree holders teach history and so on.
• Some community colleges will let you teach political science with only 18 graduate credit hours in the subject, as long as you have earned a Master's degree in something else.
• Some universities will allow you to teach political science if you are a Ph.D. student in A.B.D. status (All But Dissertation). This means you have completed all of your classroom coursework for your Ph.D. and just need to write your dissertation to finish the degree.