Teaching American Government and Politics

Centering Democratic Citizenship and Engagement in the Introductory Classroom

Elgar Guides to Teaching

A. Lanethea Mathews-Schultz, Professor, Political Science, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA and Jennie Sweet-Cushman, Associate Professor, Political Science, Chatham University, Pittsburgh, PA, US

Providing practical, concrete teaching strategies alongside relevant methodology and scholarship, this book offers a pedagogical approach for centering students'' democratic citizenship and political engagement in American government courses.

‘Mathews-Schultz and Sweet-Cushman offer a refreshing take on the seminal introductory course in American politics and government that serves as a gateway to the discipline at many institutions. Reacting to a widely-felt but not always widely acknowledged frustration with the practical limitations of the traditional, knowledge-oriented approach to the course, Teaching American Government and Politics serves as an effective guide for cultivating students’ capacity for civic action now, instead of merely (and only potentially) in the future.’
– Eric D. Loepp, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, US

‘This book will be an important resource for faculty. All-too-often, students are unable to use the knowledge they gain in US politics courses to engage effectively in the political process. The attention to civic skills and motivations that this book provides is an important corrective – one that is required if we are to strengthen representative democracy and citizen engagement in the United States.’
– Elizabeth A. Bennion, Indiana University South Bend, US