Welcome to Canadian Politics: Collaboration for Student-Led Knowledge Building

• Published in: Journal of political science education 2023-04, Vol.19 (2), p.287-296
• Main Author: Cattapan, Alana
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Assignments; Canadian politics; Collaborative Writing; College Students; Colonialism; Cooperative Learning; critical pedagogy; Critical theory; Electronic Learning; Foreign Countries; History; Introductory Courses; Marginality; online learning; Political Science; Politics; Racism; Student Developed Materials; Student Projects; Students; Textbook Preparation; Textbooks
• ISSN: 1551-2169; 1551-2177
• DOI: 10.1080/15512169.2022.2119147

In the Winter of 2020, my introductory Canadian politics class started to develop its own online, collaboratively-built, open-access, introductory "textbook" on Canadian politics. Drawing on the principles of critical pedagogy, the assignment engages students in group work to generate plain-language primers that can connect with an audience beyond our classroom while contributing to knowledge-building in the field. Once submitted, students' work is compiled, edited and uploaded to the project website. Students have multiple opportunities to provide feedback about their experience and the project as a whole. Since the project was piloted in 2020, it has been used twice more in two Canadian politics classrooms, with plans for further expansion. This article chronicles the process of developing, revising, and expanding the project. It identifies the principles behind the assignment, and the challenges the project has faced so far. Further, drawing on scholarship demonstrating that colonialism, racism, and marginality remain peripheral to the study of Canadian politics, it imagines how a student-led, collaboratively-built online "textbook" might also work to contest the historic boundaries of the discipline.