📌 Why This Matters
Political science programs bear responsibility for incorporating material that involves and engages underserved populations. Recent polls find a significant majority of Generation Z identifying as LGBTQ+, representing a percentage larger than those who identify as African American or Hispanic (Jones 2024; Public Religion Research Institute 2024).
📊 Data Snapshot: Who Students Are
- Generation Z shows higher self-identification as LGBTQ+ than other major demographic identities, according to Jones (2024) and the Public Religion Research Institute (2024).
🛠️ Where To Add LGBTQ+ Content in the Curriculum
- Mainline courses are prime sites for integration, including:
- Introduction to American national government
- The presidency
- Comparative politics
- Ample LGBTQ+-themed examples exist that can be used across a wide battery of political science courses to make material more relevant and inclusive.
🔍 Potential Payoffs
- Incorporating LGBTQ+ content into standard coursework can:
- Better serve LGBTQ+ students by making curricula more inclusive and relevant
- Increase student interest and engagement with course material
- Improve LGBTQ+ representation in the profession over time
- Pivoting to a more supportive pedagogy may also be a strategy for addressing the oncoming "population cliff" (i.e., a projected decline in college enrollment) that is expected to reduce the number of students beginning college in the future.
⚠️ Costs and Caveats
- The process of redesigning courses will require substantial initial investment in time and energy to implement effectively.
- Despite upfront costs, an updated approach to teaching political science is likely to reap dividends in student recruitment, retention, and professional representation among LGBTQ+ scholars.
