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Dalton and Putnam: Teaching Political Polarization to Generation Z Students

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 May 2021

Mark K. McBeth Open the ORCID record for Mark K. McBeth [Opens in a new window] ,
Jules Belyea Open the ORCID record for Jules Belyea [Opens in a new window]  and
Andrew Perry
Mark K. McBeth
Affiliation:
Idaho State University
Jules Belyea
Affiliation:
Idaho State University
Andrew Perry
Affiliation:
Idaho State University
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Abstract

Political polarization and generational politics are important topics in contemporary political science classrooms. This article presents an approach to teaching political polarization in an introduction to politics course. Coauthored by two Generation Z students from the course and their Boomer Generation professor, the article provides conflicting views of young people and politics as found in the work of Robert Putnam and Russell Dalton. The article presents survey data on affective and issue political polarization from the course, including discussion by the two student coauthors of the survey results interpreting their generation’s political polarization. The course approaches the introductory politics course using cognitive psychology concepts including confirmative bias, motivated reasoning, and other cognitive biases. Teaching from this micro-level perspective helps students to reflect on their own political biases. The article provides concepts and readings for political science professors to use in replicating the course.

Type
Article
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 54 , Issue 4 , October 2021 , pp. 750 - 754
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Political Science Association

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Supplementary material: Link

McBeth et al. Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/0WRY9Q
Link