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Passing Our Lives through the Fire of Thought: ThePersonal Essay in the Political Theory Classroom

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2008

Margaret Mott
Margaret Mott
Affiliation:
Marlboro College
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Extract

Why are teachers afraid of sentences that begin with “I feel …” orthat draw on personal experience? When Enid Bloch, a formerpractitioner of political science, asked her colleagues thesequestions, she was given the standard answer of “subjectivity” or“when someone brings up personal feelings there is nothing todiscuss” (1999, 69–73). That may be truefor other subfields of political science but surely the books weteach in political theory are brimming with subjectivity. Aren'tthey? And surely the essays we assign call for injecting the writingself into the broader political discussion. Don't they? So what getsin the way?

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Type
THE TEACHER
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 41 , Issue 1 , January 2008 , pp. 207 - 211
Copyright
© 2008 The American Political Science Association

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References

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