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

PROJECT SUMMARY
INTL 240 Perspectives on International Development

This project seeks to create a hands-on learning environment by providing a series of web-based modular research components that will augment traditional lectures and discussions in the classroom (see below course outline). The proposed project has five main goals to enhance the student learning experience:

i) to foster greater understanding of the structure and effects of the global system by providing research opportunities at the undergraduate level;

ii) to strengthen student abilities to conduct international research via the Internet;

iii) to create an innovative web-based curriculum module for large-lecture classes that can be easily replicated among faculty in this and other departments' programs;

iv) to increase faculty incentive in the use of instructional technology through established partnerships and through example; and

v) to lay the foundation for a development-oriented participatory research group at the University of Oregon through the creation of the International Studies Program Group (ISPG) online research database.

This redesigned course, scheduled for Fall 1999 and taught recurrently each year, will initiate cooperative learning among faculty, students, international development professionals and instructional technology staff. The course will be partially web-based and will provide the research materials necessary for learning the course material via dynamic web delivery interface: syllabus, modular research exercises, links to primary research documents, an interactive discussion forum, and published research findings. This course will offer students the opportunity to engage in practical and meaningful research in a format that allows modular learning with support from peer-to-peer interaction and classroom lectures and discussion.

Through resources available on the Internet, students will gain access to diverse perspectives on human rights through analysis of international human rights documents. The linking of human rights concerns to development has become a central issue within the international community today. The process of development itself at worst results in human rights abuses, though at best accentuates pre-existing inequalities between constituent groups. The UN Human Rights chart reviews the major human rights instruments that the research module process will be built around (additional links to primary resources are listed under each Module Summary).

As the course takes an applied approach towards development research, student participation in lectures and discussions is essential. A web-based, modular approach to student research provides a dynamic opportunity to engage students in cutting-edge international research while also promoting interactive discussion between peers and with the professor. The proposed research module exercises will take students step by step through (1) multilateral and bilateral views on development and human rights; (2) global human rights instruments and their development and gender implications; (3) third world states' development and human rights records; and (4) responses by non-governmental and community groups to human rights issues. The final product will be a searchable website that researchers can utilize to track a given state's human rights record; implications of that record on its development agenda and, in particular, for women in that country; responses by northern and southern NGOs (non-government organizations) to the country's human rights situation; and analyses of how a given human rights instrument is being implemented. In conducting her own research, Professor Weiss would have found this kind of website of enormous benefit as will others.

This final product of an internationally accessible website will, importantly feed back into Professor Weiss' research on gender and human rights. It will extend her focus on Islamic states to third world states in general. Professor Weiss may lead a workshop based both on the process of teaching the course and the actual research findings at an annual meeting of appropriate professional societies of which she is a member, notably the American Sociological Association (ASA), the Association for Asian Studies (AAS), the International Studies Association (ISA), or the Middle East Studies Association (MESA).

This proposal is coming at a critical juncture in the international studies research arena as advanced research techniques become more computer-based, requiring faculty and students to master cutting-edge technology. Contemporary research on other countries, in particular, has been largely unavailable to undergraduate students who often lack the initiative or support resources necessary to conduct research internationally. For this reason, it is important and exciting that faculty actively involved in international field research find innovative means of mentoring undergraduate students in the mechanics and issues related to international research. Likewise, faculty will gain skills critical for engaging students in course materials while providing avenues for student research to feed back into the faculty member's own research process.

Since I have been at the University of Oregon, I have sought to have my courses include applied as well as theoretical issues and have initiated various 'cutting edge' courses. Prior to receiving tenure, I had transformed the International Studies seminar in World Value Systems into a timely, interaction-based course that looks at global trends in values such as human rights, environmental sustainability and global popular culture. In Aid to Developing Countries, I introduced an aid consortium simulation, where student groups -- either as donor agencies or aid-receiving countries -- have to interact with each other to determine funding levels. Such kinds of innovative group projects greatly enhance students' learning experiences as well as facilitate cooperative group efforts necessary in 'the real world.' The last time I taught this class (Spring 1998), I experimented with placing some of the class materials on a course website, including the syllabus, project description and group project reports. This term (Spring 1999), I have placed even more of the class materials on the course website, including reading materials and group project reports.

I have not been satisfied with the structure of INTL 240, and have endeavored to make it timely, interactive and appealing to freshmen and sophomores, the largest constituency who enrolls for the course. In the past, I have incorporated a group project with the goal to provide students with diverse groups' insights into a fictional country's development dilemmas through a role-playing process. However, group projects in such a large course have proved problematic as students are confronted with a range of competing priorities. Bright, interested students have been frustrated by the lack of commitment of some students to the group process. This modular research process would enable those who are interested to acquire salient research skills along with key insights to the social dimensions of the development process, while also engaging less committed students by requiring that they submit their own work.

Research Focus
The impetus for this project is derived from my current research interests. My research today is focused in two purposeful directions: global policies being developed to empower women, and Muslim views on women's international human rights. I am particularly interested in the ways in which global instruments -- such as the Platform for Action which was debated at the U.N.'s Fourth World Forum for Women in Beijing -- influence state actions, particularly in Muslim states. These concerns meld closely when we look at Muslim views of women's empowerment that were voiced at the Vienna Human Rights conference in 1993, the UNDP Population & Development conference in Cairo in September 1994, as well as at the Beijing Forum. Much of my time conducting fieldwork in Pakistan in 1997 was concerned with these issues, which has resulted in a journal article entitled "Women, Civil Society and Politics in Pakistan" in Citizenship Studies (3,1, 1999:   141-150). My earlier research on home-based labor and the ILO's efforts to regulate it led me to realize that work -- having access to it, as well as safeguards -- is itself a part of the larger development and human rights framework and is currently a pressing discourse throughout the Muslim world as well

I received a prestigious CAORC (Consortium of American Overseas Research Centers) grant to conduct field research in Pakistan and Tunisia in 1999 for this project,which has been enhanced by my receiving a Freeman grant to support expanding this research to Malaysia. I am building upon the work I have conducted in Pakistan by doing a comparative study with these two other Muslim states. This research is investigating how Malaysia, Pakistan and Tunisia are incorporating international human rights agreements, specifically those affecting women, in their national laws, policy planning processes and related institutions. In addition to looking at legal reforms affecting family laws, which are obviously affected by views on human rights, I will also look at other actions being taken to enhance women's political and economic empowerment as a means of further securing their essential human rights. These actions are significant in that they are examples of how states can promote viable means of resolving paradoxes that often prevent engendering human rights in Muslim contexts.

What follows is a prospective course outline, which will be subject to substantial change as the collaborative partners work on it during the first half of summer term, with support from this grant.

Prospective Course Outline and
Accompanying Research Module Exercises

Required texts:
John Isbister Promises not Kept: the Betrayal of Social Change in the Third World 4th edition, Kumarian Press, 1998

United Nations Development Program Human Development Report, 1999 Oxford University Press, 1999

David J. Whittaker United Nations in the Contemporary World Routledge 1997 [This reading has been used before, but may be omitted in favor of students being required to read overviews of the U.N. and specific agencies which would have hotlinks to the course website.]

(One more text to be selected with an explicit social development and human rights focus)

Course requirements: Percentage of Final Grade
(These will be reviewed before finalized)

1. In-class mid-term exam, (Tuesday, October): 25%

2. Four Research Module exercises, for a total of: 65%

3. Discussion section participation: 10%

Course Outline
WEEK I, September 28 - 30
Introduction

Topics to Explore: concepts of development and human development; characteristics of aid-receiving countries and regions; controversy concerning term Third World; clarification of research module process

Film: "Water of Ayole"

Required Readings:
Isbister, pp. 1-30
UNDP, pp.
(TBA)

WEEK II, October 5-7
Key Actors and Issues in Development Processes

Topics to Explore: colonialism and integration of colonial economies into emergent global economic system; public need, action and accountability; national and international pressures; the emergent role of the United Nations

Required Readings:
Isbister, pp. 68-102, 104-147
Whittaker, pp. 2-13, 14-27, 28-41

WEEKS III and IV, October 12-14, 19-21
Local Culture and Development Processes:  Historic and Theoretical Foundations

Topics to Explore: tradition, modernity and westernization;  overview of major theoretical approaches to development; nationalist movements and basis of post-colonial political systems; focus on human rights as an emergent development concern

Required Readings:
Isbister, pp. 33-66, 68-102, 104-147 (?)
Whittaker, pp.
(TBA)

WEEK V, October 26-28
Economic Growth and Human Development: Key Indicators and Causes of Inequality and Inequity

Topics to Explore: key indicators and measures: GNP/, GDP, HDI, GDI, GEM; data collection issues; debt crisis, deregulation and structural adjustment; effects of NAFTA and MAI on development concerns

Required Readings:
Isbister, pp. 149-155
UNDP, pp.
(TBA)

In-class Mid-term Examination:
Tuesday, November 2nd
The in-class mid-term examination provides a fair opportunity for students to sit before the professor at the same time, and respond to specific questions in a designated time period under similar conditions, revealing their understanding of the course materials presented thus far. It remains an important incentive for students to progress through each module and to follow required readings as outlined in the syllabus.

WEEKS VI & VII, November 4, 9-11
Economic Growth and Human Development: Global  Influences on Local Concerns and Fighting Back

Topics to Explore: collective action; more on escalation of inequality and inequity in the development process; the role of the state and kleptocracies; changing roles of men and women in the process of development; population control as a human rights concern and related sustainable development issues

Film: "Something Like a War"

Required Readings:
Isbister, pp. 155-191, 193-233
UNDP, pp.
Whittaker, pp. 68-79, 80-88

WEEKS VIII & IX, November 16-18, 23
Community Development and Empowerment:  Grassroots Organizing and Human Development

Topics to Explore: rise in influence of NGOs; community organizing, domestic violence and human security as development concerns; social effects of aid; civil society and human rights

Required Readings:
UNDP, pp.
Whittaker, pp. 89-99

WEEK X: November 30-December 2
Development Agendas in the Future:
Expanding Opportunities in a World of Limits

Topics to Explore: local empowerment in response to global concerns; the future of aid and development goals; opportunity to discuss the research module process and its findings

Required Readings:
Isbister, pp. 236-247
UNDP pp.
Whittaker, pp. 116-12

Benefits for Students

1. Students move through course material as a cohort;

2. Interactive discussion is available even when students are not in a traditional classroom setting;

3. Encourages group collaboration in research design and analysis;

4. Develops mentoring relationship between faculty and students through shared research;

5. Allows for flexibility of scheduling;

6. Provides valuable academic experiences such as research design, project planning and presentation skills that can also be transferred to employment opportunities;

7. The end result of a searchable database of countries' human rights and development activities is a tangible goal that will likely inspire and excite students.

Benefits for Faculty

1. Encourages through example a success model for dynamic delivery of teaching materials;

2. Faculty participate in the learning process of conducting professional research using online resources;

3. Professor Weiss' research will be stimulated by fresh insights which students will have into this arena of research;

4. Faculty gain new technology skills that can be transferred to future courses within the department's curriculum;

5. Student research findings can be shared with colleagues at professional meetings.

Benefits for Instructional Technology Organization (SSIL)

1. Student employees will gain professional experience providing technical support to students;

2. Establishes collaborative partnerships between faculty and instructional technology support resources;

3. Encourages, through example, the innovative use of technology to engage faculty and students in hands-on research;

4. Provides opportunity for student internships in educational technology;

5. Exposes students to diverse projects on university campus.

Sustainability of Project
The goal of this project is to create an interactive model that uses both hands-on research and technological tools to enhance the learning environment for undergraduate students. This project is highly sustainable after the grant period given that:

• The course is a core component in the International Studies (INTL) major and is taught at least once during the academic year. There is potential for the course to be replicated each year with a revolving theme. Suggested future topics and their relation to development, based on research Professor Weiss intends to pursue in connection with her current research and where this research will lead, include domestic violence, women in the labor force, and democratization and civil society.

• The research reported on the course website will have a life of its own, and students, scholars, development professionals and government policy makers will be able to access it, worldwide.

• Fundamental relationships between departmental faculty, undergraduate students and instructional technology staff will form a support base for hands-on experience and research at the undergraduate level.

• Based on a model implemented by the Institute for Development Studies at the University of Sussex, this project's collaborative partners will create a website--the International Studies Participation Group (ISPG)--that will serve as a University of Oregon-based student research database for students and faculty to discuss interactively current issues in international research via an online interface.

• In addition to furthering discussion locally, this innovative course will also be a recruitment tool for undergraduate and, more likely, graduate students who will want to participate in this discussion.

Since 1992, the Social Science Instructional Lab has experienced significant increases in the number of students and classes using computer-based technology for the purpose of class instruction. SSIL reports that distance education students in the social sciences have indicated, through course evaluations, that demand is increasing for courses that combine cutting-edge technology with scheduling flexibility. This proposal provides the impetus and opportunity for developing course models that students find engaging.