POLS 137, Nationalism

Purpose: to help other instructors teaching the same course

Common Course ID:  POLS 137, Nationalism
CSU Instructor Open Textbook Adoption Portrait

Abstract: This collection of materials is being utilized in a Political Science course for undergraduate students by Sahar Razavi at California State University, Sacramento. The collection of materials provides all of the readings for the entire course in the form of PDF files available in the Canvas course shell. The main motivation to adopt this format for the readings was to reduce the financial burden of completing an undergraduate degree for our students. Most students access the files in Canvas using their computer or mobile device.

Course Title and Number: POLS 137 Nationalism

Brief Description of course highlights:  Focuses on major theories of nationalism. Examines the literature dealing with theories explaining the emergence of nationalism and its political consequences; develops a comprehensive set of empirical indicators of nationalism, together with several working hypotheses regarding political manifestations of nationalism; provides the analytic frame for understanding nationalism; and applies theories to explain political behaviors of nations.

Student population: This course typically includes Political Science or International Relations majors, some of whom have taken other upper-division courses in the program. The course does have a prerequisite of either POLS 35 Global Politics or POLS 130 International Relations, so students enrolling in the course do have at least some experience with POLS courses prior to taking this class.

Learning or student outcomes:  Students learn a) theories and debates about the origins of nationalism, b) the political consequences of nationalism for the individual, community, and nation, c) how scholars study, define, and measure nationalism, d) to develop an analytical framework for understanding nationalism, and e) to apply theories to real-world cases of nationalist movements. . 

Key challenges faced and how resolved: Students tend to enter the course with certain expectations about the normative dimensions of nationalist thought, and those expectations sometimes lead to tensions within their understanding of the nation and national identity. The course incorporates a wide variety of voices from different parts of the world which have experienced nationalism in profoundly different ways, which helps broaden students’ perspective and apply a more analytical frame to their understanding, naturally lessening that tension.
Syllabus for course - Syllabus.docx: 

Textbook or OER/Low cost Title: Nationalism

Brief Description: There was not one single/consolidated OER textbook or title that was provided, but rather a collection of materials that I individually selected, curated obtained/scanned/created the PDF for, and uploaded to the Canvas course shell where materials were organized by week within modules. The course was Nationalism, so the materials covered a range of topics including theories of nationalism, debates in the study of nationalism, and various case studies.

Authors:  Various

Student access:  In the Canvas course shell, organized by weekly modules.

Supplemental resources: I created the lecture slides myself for each week, which I then uploaded to the course shell at the end of the week.

Provide the cost savings from that of a traditional textbook.  Students save between $50 and $200 this way depending on the book that would have otherwise been chosen.

License: Since the materials are individual chapters or journal articles, the course maintained compliance of all copyright regulations. 

OER/Low Cost Adoption Process

Provide an explanation or what motivated you to use this textbook or OER/Low Cost option. I wanted to maximize access, improve the quality of the materials by curating them myself one by one, and save money for students already expending their resources to be here. I also wanted to circumvent any issues students may have with delays in receiving books, which I have experienced many times, and which puts a serious damper on their ability to keep up with the course once already delayed from the outset.

How did you find and select the open textbook for this course? I have collected a collection of sources over the years which I was able to draw on, but primarily I searched for and evaluated resources using the Sac State Library site and online repositories like OER Commons.

Sharing Best Practices: I think it's easiest to approach the project of converting courses to all OER with an understanding that it is mutually beneficial, rather than indulging in the idea that we are doing students a kindness. This makes the project much less overwhelming, which is helpful because it does take quite a bit of time and energy at the outset. However, as a heads up for expectation management, it's good to set up the conversation at the beginning of the semester about the purpose of OER, otherwise some students can get the mistaken impression that the readings are "optional" rather than required if those students are only accustomed to having textbooks.

Describe any key challenges you experienced, how they were resolved  and lessons learned.  The primary challenge I faced was the amount of time it took to find materials that were available online and fit the needs of that lesson, while avoiding any copyright violations. It was incredibly time-consuming to scour the resources available online to tailor the collection of materials precisely to what was needed, and this has to be done to some extent each time I teach the course so that I can a) adjust the readings according to the feedback I get from students, and b) update the materials as global events materialize which impact our understanding of nationalism. The lesson I learned was to start early and lean on the Sac State Library’s services like Interlibrary Loan.

Instructor Name: Sahar Razavi
I am a Political Science professor at California State University, Sacramento.

Please provide a link to your university page.
https://www.csus.edu/college/social-sciences-interdisciplinary-studies/political-science/meet-us/

Please describe the courses you teach.
I teach Comparative Politics, Governments and Politics of the Middle East, Nationalism, the United States in the Middle East, Global Politics, and Comparative Revolutions

Describe your teaching philosophy and any research interests related to your discipline or teaching.   Teaching philosophy is student-centered and culturally responsive, informed by the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in my field. I teach Comparative Politics, Governments and Politics of the Middle East, Nationalism, the United States in the Middle East, Global Politics, and Comparative Revolutions. My research interests include Iranian political and social conflict; religion, politics, and society in the Middle East; revolutions and social movements; Iranian diaspora; and gender and sexuality in the Middle East.