Tuning into Student Learning: The Music of IR Theories

Abstract The theories of international relations (IR) are often difficult topics for students to understand: What are these and how are they useful? This is especially true among students who have likely never taken a political science class, are not political science majors, and are attending a rural regional university with limited exposure to the world. So, how do we, as instructors, make IR theories more relatable to students and their daily lives? Cue the music! As part of an innovative new learning arc framework, students in sections of the Intro to World Politics course were asked to identify which of their favorite musicians embody the four main theories of IR (realism, liberalism, constructivism, and feminism). Students were then asked to explain what theories they identified the most with and why based on their music choices. They were also asked to imagine other theories as musicians as a way to help them improve their understanding of IR theories. We find that utilizing music as a pedagogical tool to teach IR theories has a net positive impact especially on freshmen and sophomore students whose major is not political science.