This post offers some more tentative reflections on our autumn panel on ‘Disability, Technology, and Inclusive Education’. For reasons that will become clear, I shall be oscillating between the usual blog format and the lesser-spotted bleg (this one, not this one…).
My main aim in organising this panel was to bring together educators who have thought deeply about how technology can make higher education more inclusive for disabled and neurodivergent students, and who share a concern that widespread advances made during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic have been lost in the rush to ‘return to normal’.
Initially, my hope was to hear mainly from people who teach politics (understood broadly) and have published their thoughts and reflections in disciplinary SoTL. But I was unable to find much, if anything, in the usual outlets (e.g., those covered in Jeremy’s SoTL round ups) that included a focus on inclusivity gains during the early part of the pandemic and subsequent losses.
This was a surprise because, more generally, inclusivity is a strong theme in our discipline’s SoTL, as is co-production, and most of the disabled students we teach have a clear view on this: according to Disabled Students UK, 85% of disabled students report that they would benefit from the continuation of online teaching and learning options introduced during the early stages of the pandemic.
It seems to me that there are three possible explanations for my inability to find much disciplinary SoTL reflecting this perspective:
It’s been very fun being one of a rare breed: a Professor in an education-focused role! One really big perk has been getting invited hither and yon to talk about my career and give dubious advice. Since it’s August and hopefully even go-getting and driven academics are managing to slack off a little bit (with all solidarity and many apologies to the Admissions Tutors amongst us), I thought I’d take my chance to poke to a bit of fun at all the strategic careers advice out there and reflect on some of the ways I’ve managed to be modestly successful by ignoring it. No-one reading the ALPS blog in August is a slacker, admittedly, but if you have any aspirations to slack more, please pull up a chair….
This post sets out how these ideas have influenced a piece of SoTL research that I am in the process of developing and on which I welcome feedback.
To recap, during the Q&A at our spring panel, the following question was raised: Many of the practical recommendations made by relational pedagogues are appealing, but do we need to sign up to the ‘theory’ to endorse them?
Consider submitting your proposal to present at Teaching Day at International Studies Association (ISA) 2027, which will be offered in both virtual and in-person formats this year (Tuesday, March 2, virtual, and Saturday, March 20th, for in-person in Atlanta). This third Teaching Day will be a great opportunity to share your teaching practice and exchange ideas with colleagues at all career stages on this fundamental part of our jobs. You can propose to lead a session on a core teaching and learning topic or skill (such as grading and giving feedback, course design, assignment design, active learning, or creating community and trust) or on the teaching innovation of your choice, as part of the Faculty Showcase. I encourage anyone who considers themselves to be a scholarly educator to submit–this is going to be a lower cost, add-on event to ISA that will provide a space for educators of all levels, regions, and perspectives to share ideas on teaching and learning, and fill in the gaps in training that many early career instructors experience. We hope to get a really varied set of presenters to ensure a wide range of perspectives are represented.
ALPS readers who teach political theory might be interested in a one-day workshop taking place at the University of York on Monday 1st June on the topic of ‘Designing Political Theory Curricula’. It is being organised by the Teaching Political Theory Network (TPTN).
Workshop details: An important part of teaching political theory and philosophy involves the designing of curricula, programmes and modules. However, in doing so, political theorists may face any number of challenges and obstacles. We often teach broad cohorts of students, including students who may have little interest in political theory. How can we ensure our teaching is engaging them? We may need to design assessment to fit the module content, but what are the best ways to assess the skills political theorists seek to impart? How can we ensure that our teaching speaks to and engages students from different backgrounds, or provides them with the skills they need to succeed beyond academia? This workshop creates a space to share research and experience regarding the design and delivery of political theory teaching.
Questions that might be addressed include:
– How to design modules for different cohorts of students?
– How to design assessments for political theory modules?
– How to design inclusive and diverse curricula?
– How to balance competing demands from students, institutions, employers and/or society when designing curricula?
How to take part: If you’re interested in presenting something at this workshop, please email a short (300 word) abstract to adam.fusco@york.ac.uk and john.wilesmith@ucl.ac.uk by 27 April 2026 (extended from the original deadline of 13 April).
Please also drop us an email if you wish to attend but not present, or if you wish to be added to the TPTN mailing list for updates about this and future events.
If you are attending the International Studies Association’s Annual Meeting in Columbus later this month, I encourage you to consider attending the 2nd Annual Teaching Day at ISA, a free conference-within-a-conference on Sunday, March 22nd. While the rest of ISA features a number of great panels and roundtables on the scholarship of teaching and learning, the Teaching Day consists of workshops, simulations, and demonstrations of teaching techniques and approaches. Participation was competitive and we have a great program for you.
In particular, I’d welcome anyone interested in the following: – A roundtable discussion about how to handle AI in the classroom. You can bring analysis, critique or solutions as we try to help colleagues make sense of this important shift in our practice; – A workshop to help anyone looking for advice on developing their teaching practice. The format would be an informal space for discussions, with you bringing your ideas and experiences (whatever the level) to help others
If you’re up for either (both?) of these, then drop me a message (simon.usherwoodATopen.ac.uk). Close of the call is 1 February, so ideally don’t leave it to the last minute
This week I published a short essay in the ISA Newsletter on governance in the International Studies Association. In it, I explore a key independent variable that I hypothesize affects who serves in the entry-level leadership positions in sections, regions and caucuses: the process of electing chairs and the length of service required to serve in a chair role. I argue that a common practice of requiring potential chairs to serve first as program chairs–and conversely, for program chairs to immediately step into the top role–may preclude many qualified, interested members from serving in entry-level leadership. This essay was inspired by my own experience entering leadership in the International Education section, which merged two years ago with the Active Learning Section to form the Education and Learning in International Studies (ELIAS) section.
I never did follow up on my February post about Ashes of Winter Night, a crisis response game that a team of experienced classroom gamers and I designed and executed at ISA 2025.
Short take: It went great!
I figured you might want more details than that, though. Plus, a copy of the draft rules at the end of the article! 🙂
It all began at ISA 2024, over a coffee meeting with Dr. Sarah Dorr, ISA’s Director of Professional Development. I’d just taught a pre-conference game design workshop, and based on participant feedback, Sarah proposed running a game at ISA 2025. I need little wing twisting to run a game, so I readily accepted.
Fast forward a year and several meetings, during which we settled on an objective. When designing games, I always start with the objective and work backwards. A good objective reads like a testable hypothesis, and every element of my designs must contribute to meeting the objective.
In ISA’s case, my objective was to execute a one-hour experiential crisis response game limited to 25 participants.
One hour is a tight fit (I typically recommend a minimum of four hours), so I had to distill it down to core essentials, with simple rules and a fast onboarding process. We also decided on a scenario that was unifying (a natural disaster) rather than divisive (war), so I modified the Palisades fire. Tying a “fictional” scenario to an actual event lends emotional and consequential weight, as players can relate their in-game experiences to real-world challenges.
We further limited the game to 25 participants based on expected room limitations. Even with “only” 25 participants, though, a one-hour time limit required agile refereeing. Since I knew I couldn’t be everywhere at once in a fast-moving crisis game, I assembled a crack team of experienced classroom gamers: Drs. Charity Butcher, Mark Harvey, Petra Hendrickson, and ALPS’s own Jennifer Ostojski. In addition to serving as referees, they also helped with game development.
During a team meeting, we decided to divide participants into five-person teams, with each team representing an abstract crisis response function. Although I technically controlled the game as the Ops Center referee (more on teams below), Charity, Mark, Petra, and Jennifer had free rein to adjudicate team requests, questions, and decisions.
Standing, left to right: Pigeon, Mark Harvey, Charity Butcher, Jennifer Ostojski, and Petra Hendrickson. Sarah Dorr is seated at the far left. We had enough participants for three teams, each at a different table. This table was the medical team, with a member of the fire team letting medical know that they’ve secured an objective (Michael Twoomey, standing far right).
While the game could have been played through narrative alone, I included dice mechanics to physically represent risk and chance. I applied dice pool and resolve mechanics inspired by the roleplaying game Prowlers & Paragons, since the mechanics are easy to teach (disclosure: I write for Mobius Worlds Publishing, publisher of P&P). A dice pool increases the probability of success as more dice are committed to a roll, while resolve—represented by poker chips—provided teams narrative opportunity to reroll, share, or replenish dice (more on narrative below). If you’ve played Dungeons & Dragons or Savage Worlds, resolve is respectively similar to Inspiration and Bennies.
However, I also added a depleting resource mechanic. That is, teams started with a set number of dice that were removed from play when used. This encouraged debate on how and when to spend resources that dice represented–there were means to replenish dice, but replenishment was not guaranteed.
But storytelling was the core mechanic. It wasn’t enough to simply roll dice or slap down poker chips: players had to describe what they were trying to achieve. Players don’t remember dice—they remember stories. They remember working together to overcome obstacles. They remember what it was like to fail, try again, and succeed, and they remember these through narratives.
To that end, the game generated fantastic discussion, even in abstract form. One participant found me the next day and said he couldn’t stop thinking about the game; later, he ran a modified version in his class. This is the “magic circle” effect at its finest, when players recall the game later and continue sharing stories.
The game was a success. Feedback suggests the design and time limit were just right for a conference, yet easy to modify for a longer-form game. For example, one player suggested using colored dice to represent specific types of resources (e.g., green for money, blue for potable water, red for medical supplies, etc.) rather than a generic pool.
Want to see for yourself? Here are the rules and map as used at ISA (ver .51). I’d like to clean these up for formal publication, though, and am open to comments and suggestions. Game on!
