My teaching philosophy is based on the observation that all learning involves failure. While our competitive job market and educational environment cause us to forget this fact, I believe that teachers and educators must anticipate and communicate that failure is essential to learning.
Since learning takes place in groups and group dynamics tend to expose and even degrade failure, I try to create an environment where students are not afraid to fail. One way to do this is to create a strong sense of solidarity among students. Working on assignments in different group constellations (e.g., tandem, small group, class divided into pro and contra) can help create solidarity. I also encourage students to learn through collaboration, for example, by suggesting that they work together on course assignments and peer review each other’s work.
In this sense, I understand my role as a teacher to be one of facilitating co-learning among students. When teaching is understood in this way, as John Dewey notes, „the teacher loses the position of external boss or dictator but takes on that that of leader of group activities.“ By giving students a sense of security and ownership of the topics, the group creates an atmosphere that encourages everyone to freely exchange ideas.
My priority is to empower students to think critically. I teach that productive critical thinking means understanding the subject matter and seriously considering the ideas or arguments we criticize or identify as problematic. After all, even problematic opinions and arguments exist and must be taken seriously if we are to challenge and overcome them. Understood in this way, critical thinking cannot end with the rejection of an argument or opinion. It requires thinking through better solutions and finding better answers than those being criticized. Learning to think critically in this way allows students to appreciate the plurality of ideas, arguments, and identities. It helps them understand the fundamental components of democratic social interaction and organization.
My teaching aims to prepare students to think, act, and research in a critically democratic way that recognizes diversity as essential to all the social processes and interactions.
I have taught at universities in Germany (Münster, HU-Berlin, Frankfurt/Main), Israel (Tel-Aviv) and the United States (Princeton).
Recent classes include:
- Introduction to authoritarianism research (BA).
- Introduction to comparative constitutionalism (BA).
- Political conflict and democracy (BA).
- Populism in Europe (BA).
- Economic Democracy (MA).