{"title":"Floating on uncertain waters: navigating ‘sensitivity’ while teaching politics and international relations in Mainland China","authors":"Ruairidh J Brown","doi":"10.1177/02633957241236404","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This article gives autoethnographic sketch of teaching International Relations in Mainland China. Attention is given to the issue of ‘sensitivity’, a phenomenon typically associated with Chinese State censorship. The article will however argue that sensitivity is much more complex than a top-down State prohibition on certain topics, arguing instead that it is an opaque and continually in flux phenomenon produced by multiple actors within society. The article will further argue that the surest means of navigating this phenomenon for an academic is to listen to students and use insights gained from them as a means of navigating sensitivity. These insights can provide both further knowledge of how sensitivities are constructed as well as how to safely discuss them – an awareness that can serve as inspiration for critical discussions on political issues. In completing this sketch, the article fills the notable gap in pedagogical literature on Higher Education in China concerning both politics as a challenge to teaching in mainland China, most studies almost exclusively concerning themselves with the challenges posed by cultural Confucianism, and as content, previous studies being almost completely contained within disciplines such as Business Management and Foreign Languages.","PeriodicalId":47206,"journal":{"name":"Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1000,"publicationDate":"2024-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Politics","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02633957241236404","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This article gives autoethnographic sketch of teaching International Relations in Mainland China. Attention is given to the issue of ‘sensitivity’, a phenomenon typically associated with Chinese State censorship. The article will however argue that sensitivity is much more complex than a top-down State prohibition on certain topics, arguing instead that it is an opaque and continually in flux phenomenon produced by multiple actors within society. The article will further argue that the surest means of navigating this phenomenon for an academic is to listen to students and use insights gained from them as a means of navigating sensitivity. These insights can provide both further knowledge of how sensitivities are constructed as well as how to safely discuss them – an awareness that can serve as inspiration for critical discussions on political issues. In completing this sketch, the article fills the notable gap in pedagogical literature on Higher Education in China concerning both politics as a challenge to teaching in mainland China, most studies almost exclusively concerning themselves with the challenges posed by cultural Confucianism, and as content, previous studies being almost completely contained within disciplines such as Business Management and Foreign Languages.
期刊介绍:
Politics publishes cutting-edge peer-reviewed analysis in politics and international studies. The ethos of Politics is the dissemination of timely, research-led reflections on the state of the art, the state of the world and the state of disciplinary pedagogy that make significant and original contributions to the disciplines of political and international studies. Politics is pluralist with regards to approaches, theories, methods, and empirical foci. Politics publishes articles from 4000 to 8000 words in length. We welcome 3 types of articles from scholars at all stages of their careers: Accessible presentations of state of the art research; Research-led analyses of contemporary events in politics or international relations; Theoretically informed and evidence-based research on learning and teaching in politics and international studies. We are open to articles providing accounts of where teaching innovation may have produced mixed results, so long as reasons why these results may have been mixed are analysed.