Description
International Relations 1111 is a unique course at the University of Gothenburg for several reasons. First, it is one of the largest bachelor's level courses in terms of student enrollment at the department where it is offered. Second, and much more interestingly, it is a course where teachers and course coordinators have spent years developing and integrating pedagogical approaches into the course that are explicitly designed to help students improve their academic writing. From peer review activities to consultations with writing experts to a recurring task requiring students to reflect on their strengths and weaknesses as academic writers, IR1111 is notable for the sheer number of activities that teachers use to assist students in writing their essay questions, structuring their texts, and developing their arguments. It was for this reason that course coordinators were awarded a prestigious pedagogy prize by the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Gothenburg in 2017. This paper is written by three teachers who have played different roles in developing IR1111 in general and in integrating academic writing instruction into the course in particular. They describe and reflect on the academic literature they employ to develop course activities as well as the successes and failures of those activities concerning student feedback and their own pedagogical experiences. The paper is intended as a behind the scenes look at a pedagogically successful international relations course that may inspire IR teachers to (better) incorporate academic writing into their courses.
