by Janavi Kanagasundaram
How many emails have you received from GW inviting you to forums and discussion-based sessions about the state of affairs on campus? How many have you gone to? How many have your peers gone to? If you’ve paused, considered attending, and then bypassed that link to RSVP, you’re probably in the majority of the student population, even in a school as politically active as our own. Do we pass on these opportunities because of our tight schedules, our lack of interest, or our belief that it won’t lead to any change? Or is it a lack of understanding in the issues or an inability to properly convey what we think?
And how do we fix this?
New research from Abo Akademi University in Finland has proposed that increasing citizen participation in society requires implementing a different approach to these issues. Rather than broadly inviting citizens or students to take part in these Q&A sessions, they recommend using a learning-based approach that consists of multiple parts. They named their method Deliberative Walks, and it consists of different teaching methods at the beginning of the section with a series of lectures that each specialize in one of the topics related to the discussion. In their example, the students were invited to a session concerning the planning of a new area surrounding their campus location, so the lectures touched on architecture, art, and urban planning. They followed this approach with a tour of the actual grounds where the construction would occur, giving students the additional opportunity to talk to the different officials in charge of the process and understand their points of view. At the conclusion of the session, students were able to discuss their views more openly with grounded evidence in what they had seen and witnessed that day, and they were able to come to a consensus on future plans.
The researchers noted that “the course experience also enhanced the participants' sense of inclusion and boosted their self-confidence to express and discuss their own opinions,” according to post-session questioning. For them, Deliberative Walks served as a way of equalizing student backgrounds, providing them the same basis of information for them to make informed decisions, while still allowing for the individualities of the students by means of thought and experience to be expressed in the final discussion.
On the other hand, there are many drawbacks to such a method. Coordinating the people, facilities, and timings would take significant effort and resources, and there would have to be some sort of mandate placed upon students to attend these in order for attendance to spike. When presenting the information through the lectures, the teaching would have to be as factual and unbiased as possible to avoid potential conflict. However, the findings of the research indicate that the positive benefits of such a method would be numerous and worth the undertaking.
Perhaps this type of method could be used as a learning platform for topics that are increasingly crucial to our understanding, such as climate change, artificial intelligence, or health-related issues. Other studies have found evidence that teaching students about the intricacies of cancer at an earlier age correlates to a decrease in behaviors that could lead to cancer and a simultaneous increase in active efforts to prevent cancer, such as cancer screenings. Venturing into areas that are usually considered difficult to understand by someone who does not specialize in that field may broaden the base of the student population’s general knowledge and increase the variety of perspectives brought into the discussion. Sticking to proven research and showing the direct evidence, while still explaining the limitations of the research, could encourage students to reconsider prior bias and formulate new opinions, or strengthen old arguments with a solid foundation. Creating this type of shared discussion would be beneficial in reducing the current polarization of such topics, a change that would be most welcome in today’s world.
Janavi Kanagasundaram is a freshman from Lansdale, Pennsylvania, majoring in International Affairs with a concentration in International Economics. Her past research projects have centered on studying the influence of beauty product advertisements on the perception of different skin shades. She currently works as an administrative assistant in GW’s Anthropology Department, writes for GW Scope, and is a member of the University Honors Program and South Asian Society.
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