Description
The paper builds on a student-staff co-creation project to develop the module “PPE: Interdisciplinary Topics” which discusses the Politics, Philosophy, and Economics of food from the global to the local level, weaving together insights from all three disciplines in each teaching session. Thus, while it heavily draws on themes in International Political Economy, it also weaves in other aspects of politics, philosophy, and economics.
Curriculum design is often owned by academic staff and student feedback relegated to module evaluations. Yet, genuine engagement must embed student voices in all aspects of modular design. In this project, students drove all major module design decisions: weekly topics, readings, guest speakers, and assessments. The resulting module combines various activities considered good practice in the pedagogical literature, such as research-led learning and skills scaffolding, all emerging organically from a student-led project. In post-project interviews, students reflected on the project and offered broader insights into interdisciplinary study and student-staff relations. Overall, the paper encourages further projects of this kind and offers recommendations for student-led module design in social science modules.
