A FIELD GUIDE TO TEACHING AGENCY AND ETHICS: THE WEST WING AND AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY

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Date

2015

Authors

Mobley, Kayce
Fisher, Sarah

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Abstract

Though political science undergraduate courses reflect a rich theoretical tradition, they typically lack opportunities for students to express intangible concepts through the interpretation of creative works, a standard exercise of critical analysis. Educators can address this dearth in many ways, such as through utilization of popular culture texts. We employ the television series The West Wing to ground debates in American politics, specifically American foreign policy. Although this show has been off air since 2006, Netflix and Amazon have recently released the entire series for streaming, significantly reducing the hassle and monetary cost of using this source in the classroom. Using The West Wing as our guide, we enhance political science pedagogy using agency, structure, and ethics as our guiding concepts. Keywords: politics, television, The West Wing, foreign policy, decision making, agency, structure, ethics, critical analysis, United States

Description

Keywords

Type of access: Open Access, politics, television, The West Wing, foreign policy, decision making, United States, critical analysis, ethics

Citation

Mobley, K. & S. Fisher. (2015). A field guide to teaching agency and ethics: The West Wing and American foreign policy. Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy. 2(1). http://journaldialogue.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/K-Mobley-S-Fisher.pdf