Engagement Activity: Model United Nations
The engagement activity provides students an opportunity to explore the central unifying theme of the course—people, power and politics—in practice and outside of the classroom. In the course of their engagement activity, students may, for example, learn about the local manifestations of a global issue, engage with primary sources and experience the dynamics and consequences of decision-making on individuals and communities. Although the emphasis of the task is on active engagement rather than primarily on research, it is expected that students make use of the key concepts, theories and ideas they are learning in the classroom and undertake further reading to inform their planning and actions, and their discussion of the political issue raised in their activities. In brief, the task aims at active and reflective engagement. The engagement activity work culminates in a 2,000-word written report.
There are three parts to the engagement activity work: undertaking an engagement, doing complementary research and writing a report. Although the written report is the assessed component of the engagement activity, students’ planning, actions, further reading and discussion are interconnected; all are required for a good end result. Moreover, students can expect to go back and forth between the different elements of the work: for example, they should do some preliminary research on the context of their activities before they engage, and while writing their report, they may discover areas for which additional research is needed to balance the perspectives acquired through the engagement.
Complementary Research
The role of research in the engagement activity is to complement what students learn through their engagement, including their own evolving beliefs and perspectives. A helpful way of thinking about research is to ask: in addition to the experiential learning students gain and on which they critically reflect, what else do they need to know and understand to be able to write a good, evaluative analysis of their selected political issue? Often, background information on actors, organizations, events etc is required for understanding the context in which the engagement takes place. Some additional reading to establish links between their activities, chosen political issue and the key concepts, theories and ideas studied in the core units of the course is called for. Also, the perspectives students gain through their engagement are partial and limited. Research is needed to establish which other perspectives on the political issue and the organization(s) with which students have been engaging are possible, and what the strengths and limitations of various perspectives are.
Students’ complementary research can be based on primary and secondary material, though the emphasis is likely to be on secondary sources, as any primary research is likely to be a part of the engagement itself. During their experiential learning, students may collect items such as photos, responses to questionnaires and extracts of interviews. Newspaper, magazine and journal articles, textbooks, carefully selected websites, images and audio-visual material are all legitimate secondary sources. It is expected that students will include in-text citations or references of the supporting documents and a bibliography, which should be structured in a recognized academic format. Primary sources significant to the students’ discussion should be included in an appendix, where appropriate.
The written report is an opportunity for students to bring together the lessons they have learned about their chosen political issue through their engagement and complementary research. As for many other larger writing projects, it is likely to be highly helpful for students to formulate a question, tightly linked to the political issue, which they attempt to answer through their experiences and reading, and refine this question throughout the engagement activity process.
In their reports, students must identify a political issue they decided to explore through the engagement and explain their reasons why they wanted to get involved with this specific engagement and issue. If the engagement is large and multi-faceted—perhaps consisting of several tasks or with the student having several roles in the course of the engagement—they need to focus their report on aspects of the engagement that are most relevant for their treatment of the political issue. Instead of describing at length what they did, the key aspect about the engagement in the written report is what it taught students about their selected political issue. The lessons from experiential learning, combined with insights from research, inform students’ analysis of the political issue. They are expected to synthesise their insights and evaluate the political issue from multiple perspectives.
For your Engagement Activity you will be involved in an MUN conference and your committee will debate a topic:
From the topic you will need to develop the following questions
1.What is the political challenge/s in this topic?
2.Identify some Political issues you could focus on in this overarching political challenge (break it down further into some categories you could focus on)
3.Formulate a title or a question to guide your research and written report, and which you will use during your engagement activity.
4.What are some particular real-life situations or examples you could use in your written report, which needs to be 2000 words.
Below is the rubric that is used to assess the engagement activity
Criterion A: Identification of issue and justification (4 marks)
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Is the political issue explored through the engagement identified?
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Is there a clear explanation of why this particular engagement and political issue are of interest to the student?
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Is there a clear link between the engagement and political issue on one hand and course content on the other hand?
Marks Level Descriptor
0 The work does not reach a standard described by the descriptors below.
1-2 The political issue raised by the engagement is implied but not explicitly identified. There is some limited explanation of why the student chose this engagement. There is some link between the engagement and course content.
3-4 The political issue explored through the engagement is clearly and explicitly identified. There is a clear explanation of why this engagement and political issue are of interest to the student. There is a clear link between the engagement and political issue on one hand and course content on the other hand.
Criterion B: Explanation of the engagement (4 marks)
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Is the description of the engagement and of what the student actually did clear and relevant for their chosen political issue?
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Is there a clear explanation of the ways in which the student’s experiences informed his or her understanding of the political issue?
Marks Level Descriptor
0 The work does not reach a standard described by the descriptors below.
1-2 There is a description of the engagement and of what the student actually did. There is some limited explanation of what the student learned about global politics from undertaking the engagement.
3-4 The description of the engagement and of what the student actually did is clear and relevant for their chosen political issue. There is a clear explanation of the ways in which the student’s experiences informed his or her understanding of the political issue.
Criterion C: Analysis of the issue (6 marks)
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To what extent does the student analyse the political issue?
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To what extent does the student justify his or her main points?
Marks Level Descriptor
0 The work does not reach a standard described by the descriptors below.
1-2 There is some attempt at analysis of the political issue but the response is largely descriptive. Few of the main points are justified.
3-4 There is some critical analysis of the political issue but this analysis lacks depth. The response is more descriptive than analytical. Some of the main points are justified.
5-6 The political issue is explored in depth, using the key concepts of the course where relevant, and the response contains clear critical analysis. All, or nearly all, of the main points are justified.
Criterion D: Synthesis and evaluation (6 marks)
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To what extent does the student synthesize his or her experiences and research in the discussion of the political issue?
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To what extent does the student show evidence of evaluation, underpinned by his or her experiences and adequate research, to allow multiple perspectives on the political issue?
Marks Level Descriptor
0 The work does not reach a standard described by the descriptors below.
1-2 There are limited links between ideas. There are no conclusions, or the conclusions are not relevant.
3-4 There are some links between the student’s experiences and more theoretical perspectives on the political issue. Conclusions are stated but are not entirely consistent with the evidence presented. Multiple perspectives are acknowledged, where relevant.
5-6 The student’s experiences and more theoretical perspectives are synthesised so that an integrated and rich treatment of the political issue ensues. Conclusions are clearly stated, balanced and consistent with the evidence presented. There is evidence of evaluation of the political issue from multiple perspectives.
Below are some examples with written assessor comments