Political scientist teaches VWO pupils: ‘some knew more than I did at that age’
It is a full classroom: more than 30 pupils from 5 and 6 VWO are present to listen to political scientist Leila Demarest's lecture. She gives a brief introduction on the topic she is about to discuss: democracy in the global North and South. At first, the group seems a bit quiet, but when she asks questions to the class, she soon gets some sharp answers.
Measuring democracy
This is the first time Demarest has given a guest lesson to a VWO class. Demarest is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Political Science. Although she has been teaching for years, this was still a bit exciting. ‘The students seemed a bit tired, but there was a good response to the questions.’ The supervising secondary school teacher said afterwards that the topic fitted in well with the material that had also been covered during geography lessons, so the students came prepared.
When asked how democratic the Netherlands is, they were quick to reply: ‘probably a 9 or so, because 10 is almost impossible.’ Demarest agreed. Almost no country has a score of 100 per cent. To illustrate this, she talks about the Freedom House institute, which maps democracy worldwide. The Netherlands turns out to have a score of 97, so the answer was not far off. Moreover, Demarest explains how Freedom House measures democracy. For instance, they look at how transparent a country's governance is. To this, the students listen with great interest. Demarest indicates that the Netherlands currently scores 3 out of 4 points here; we have lost that last point in recent years. Why? For a moment there is silence, but soon a student comes up with the right answer: the childcare benefits scandal.
Guest lectures for secondary school students
These guest lectures are organised by ICLON, in cooperation with scientists from various institutes. It offers pupils a unique opportunity to be taught by university teachers, who highlight an aspect of their research or field of study. Researchers at Leiden University can sign up for this via ICLON. Usually the guest lectures are given on location, but today the students came to the Pieter de la Court building. The lectures are always planned in consultation: a secondary school can apply for a guest lesson, and then they are linked to a scientist who is available.
ICLON says it is actually very easy: when you sign up as a scientist, you decide how often and when you give such a lecture. You also decide the subject of the lecture. This is what schools can then sign up for. Currently, some topics are offered by Psychology, and Cultural Anthropology also offers a topic. Since this year, the Institute of Political Science has also been represented thanks to Demarest.
Putting your discipline in the spotlight
Demarest: 'Of course it's nice to put your institute and your field in the spotlight (I had also put the polling guide by colleague Tom Louwerse in the presentation) and maybe there are political scientists-to-be who are inspired by the questions we focus on.' The main motivation for her, however, was to encourage a complex approach to political problems in the Global South, and to counter stereotypes among young citizens in general. 'When you do research on citizenship classes and young people in the Global South, sometimes you have to step into the real world yourself, right? I thought it was quite a good experience and the students indeed had good answers: they know their parties, the issues around which these parties make their programmes, and some even had knowledge of ethnic conflict in Africa. That's more than I knew at that age!'