Teaching in a Polarized Environment
2027 APSA Teaching & Learning Conference
Portland, Oregon, February 5-7, 2027
Deadline: October 7, 2026, 11:59 PM PDT
Partisan polarization is reaching historic levels, in the United States and around the world. The causes and consequences of polarization are under intense debate and scrutiny at the macrolevel. However, at the micro-level of our classrooms and campuses, teaching in this polarized environment becomes front and center with our students who may vigorously express, or quietly reserve, their views on political actors, institutions, and the short and long-term consequences of political outcomes. This track is seeking papers about a) how faculty experience the pressures of polarization in the classroom, on campus, or wider college and university community; b) what faculty do to facilitate learning about the topic, its causes, consequences, and the role of students in living and working through such polarization; c) pedagogical approaches to facilitating discussion, dialogue, debate, and disagreement in the classroom; and d) reacting to intense claims and disagreement between students in and out of the classroom.
- Submit your proposal for the 18th APSA Teaching & Learning Conference.
- All TLC 2027 proposals must be submitted by October 7, 2026, 11:59 PM PDT.
- Explore all TLC 2027 tracks or view submission instructions.
About the APSA Teaching & Learning Conference
Join political science teacher-scholars and students for the 2027 APSA Teaching & Learning Conference, held in Portland, Oregon, February 5-7, 2027. The conference theme is “Building Bridges: Dialogue and Discovery in Political Science.” Partisan polarization is at all time highs, and the value of higher education, the liberal arts, and social science knowledge is under scrutiny, Political Science is in a unique position to address both threats by building bridges across differences. The TLC is a unique conference that provides a highly interactive forum for scholars to share research and innovative tools for political science education. The conference focuses on promoting the scholarship of teaching and learning, equipping faculty with new techniques and resources for teaching, and enhancing the role of teaching in the discipline of political science.
All attendees will be asked to select a track when registering and will expected to attend each session in the selected track. Workshop and roundtable attendance is not determined by track, and these sessions are open to any conference attendee.
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