{"id":249,"date":"2017-06-14T15:39:30","date_gmt":"2017-06-14T19:39:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/philryan\/?page_id=249"},"modified":"2026-06-27T11:00:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T15:00:37","slug":"teaching","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/philryan\/teaching\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching"},"content":{"rendered":"

2026-27<\/h2>\n

Modern Challenges to Governance<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I gave this course for the first time in the winter of 2017. It covers a range of challenges, such as climate change, globalization, inequality, the influence of money on politics, and so on. Here\u2019s the introductory blurb from the course outline:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is real is what you have to deal with, what won\u2019t go away just because it doesn\u2019t fit with your prejudices.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charles Taylor (Sources of the self<\/em>, 59).<\/p>\n

\u201cNous courons sans souci dans le pr\u00e9cipice, apr\u00e8s que nous avons mis quelque chose devant nous pour nous emp\u00eacher de le voir.\u201d [\u201cWe run carefree into the precipice, having put something in front of us to hide it from sight.\u201d]<\/p>\n

Blaise Pascal (Pens\u00e9es, \u00b6183.)<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t it always seem to go, that you don\u2019t know what you\u2019ve got till it\u2019s gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joni Mitchell (Big Yellow Taxi<\/em>)<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018I wish it need not have happened in my time,\u2019 said Frodo.
\n\u2018So do I,\u2019 said Gandalf, \u2018and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 J.R.R. Tolkien (The fellowship of the ring<\/em>)<\/p>\n

\u201cExtend and pretend\u201d describes a behaviour frequently used in financial markets. What happens, for example, when a borrower cannot repay a bank loan? If the bank classifies the loan as a bad one, it takes a loss on its books, and the officials who agreed to the loan look bad. What to do? One can extend<\/em>: extend to the borrower a new loan to pay back the old one. And pretend<\/em>: pretend that somehow or other the causes of the borrower\u2019s failure will go away. And so the challenge of dealing with the problem is simply booted forward in time, for someone else to deal with, sometime or other.<\/p>\n

The broader political analogies of this behaviour are clear. In the world of politics and policy many actors have an interest in simply extending<\/em> current practices, and pretending<\/em> that serious challenges aren\u2019t real. And there are few incentives within the political and bureaucratic systems of modern democracies to encourage taking a long view, and building policy around that.<\/p>\n

So one of the personal challenges you will face should you dwell in the world of politics and policy is that you will find there\u2019s a \u201cwhole lot of pretendin\u2019 going on.\u201d You need to reflect upon how you will handle that. Much is at stake: the pretending can protect certain narrow personal goods: getting reelected, for the politician, staying out of trouble, for the civil servant. But it also threatens many things of great value. To counter this, you will need critical<\/em> thinking, the ability to detect the many ways we refuse to engage with reality, and also appreciative<\/em> thinking, the ability to identify those important goods that are worth defending.<\/p>\n

\n

Qualitative Methods for Public Policy<\/h3>\n

Course outline introduction:<\/p>\n

Methods teaching is often carved into distinct quantitative and qualitative courses. This division is regrettable, primarily because it can lead to an overly narrow quantitative pedagogy, focussing on technique and neglecting judgment.<\/p>\n

This course aims to correct for that, examining the qualitative dimension of all<\/em> research. Thus, we will be looking at traditional qualitative methods, such as interviews and observation. But we will also be considering the qualitative aspects of quantitative research. Even the most intimidating quantitative study involves vital qualitative judgments: What variable should be allowed to \u201cstand in\u201d for the phenomenon one really wants to measure, but cannot? How should survey questions be worded and sequenced?<\/p>\n

More generally, this course will consider questions such as: what kinds\u00a0of knowledge can be gained with different research strategies? What are the respective strengths and limitations of these strategies? What sorts of human judgments underlie any research work?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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