RAIRE/CAS Grant Proposal
Transforming
Research Into Teaching
1999-2000
 

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PROJECT ABSTRACT
INTL 240 Perspectives on International Development

This collaborative proposal between Dr. Anita M. Weiss, Associate Professor, International Studies Program, and the Social Science Instructional Lab/Academic Web Publishing, seeks funding to design and implement a series of innovative research modules for the large-lecture undergraduate course INTL 240, Perspectives on International Development. This course, first developed in 1996, is designed as an introduction to the major issues and challenges associated with the process of international development.

Following an overview of theoretical approaches to development in historical and political contexts, the course addresses the ways in which development challenges confronting states today are interlinked with sustainable growth, equitable consumption and production, globalization and structural adjustment, poverty and state recourse to export-oriented manufacturing, human rights issues, and seminal United Nations' initiatives designed to affect the development process. The course evaluates and critiques development theories and processes as it exposes students to recognize the array of perspectives and often conflicting goals inherent within them.

This grant would enable a pedagogical innovation to be incorporated into this course: four research modules which would not only further students' understanding of key players and issues in the international development arena, but also provide an opportunity for students to do original research that would result in an internationally-accessible research product. This website would provide researchers with country-specific information on which human rights instruments have been ratified, domestic efforts to implement the terms of a given convention or covenant, and NGO activities to influence, monitor or critique the state actions. Finally, the end result of a searchable database of countries' human rights and development activities and how a given human rights instrument is being implemented globally is a tangible goal that will likely inspire and excite students not only in within this course but also to pursue these issues in the future.