Introduction to the Instructor’s Manual

Dear instructors of undergraduate and/or graduate family policy courses:

Congratulations! You will be teaching a course that is one-of-a-kind on most college campuses and, if taught well, has the potential to benefit students and families alike. A family policy course can open students’ minds to the power of policy in the lives of families, and trigger in these budding professionals a life-long passion for influencing family policies in their community, state, and nation. If we are able to inspire students to action, the ultimate beneficiary will be families who are shaped by the policy context as surely as by the other conditions in which they operate.

My co-authors and I have written this manual in the spirit of efficiency so every instructor does not have to “reinvent the wheel.” This manual provides step-by-step guidelines for teaching a college course on family policy. We do not view this manual as a blueprint, but rather as a guide that details a number of student-tested techniques from seasoned instructors. For new instructors, we hope these ideas will jump-start course preparation with teaching aides that come from years of experience. For veteran instructors, we hope that these ideas will bring a fresh perspective, updated readings, and practical examples that will make a good course even better.

We have also written this manual in the spirit of effectiveness. We have added several elements to this edition of the manual to engage today’s digital generation. For the busy instructor, we have strived to include the stuff from which good courses and high teaching evaluations are made:

Teaching philosophy is important to any class, but especially to a course such as family policy that is challenging to teach, given its fluid nature and value-laden content. The teaching philosophy, much of which is shared orally with students, sets clear expectations for the course and helps establish a safe, accepting classroom climate in which learning can best occur.
Course content and teaching techniques, if strategically designed, can make an esoteric topic such as family policy come alive for students. The theory and practice of teaching family policy are summarized in a journal article that I published in Family Relations, “Teaching Family Policy in Undergraduate and Graduate Classrooms: Why It’s Important and How to Do It Better.”
Readings carefully selected from the Bogenschneider text and beyond are ones that students find engaging and that never fail to elicit discussion and critical thinking. Some of the readings are cutting-edge and others are classic articles that students of family policy should become familiar with. Others are included because of their insensitivity to family well-being, a cultural bias, or conceptual inconsistencies in a conscious attempt to help students become critical consumers of scholarly writing.
Activities—33 in all—have been submitted by experienced family policy instructors from across the country for use in undergraduate and graduate classes. The activities, ten that are accompanied with copy-ready handouts, teach a number of course concepts in engaging ways such as illustrating how much families have changed in your lifetime, identifying the trade-offs policymakers face, communicating effectively with policymakers, and writing elevator speeches on the rationale for family policy. Students tell me they remember these activities years later.
Discussion questions are provided in the chapter lesson plans for every assigned reading. These ready-to-use questions, which are easy to edit to instructors’ needs, may be one of the biggest time-savers in the manual. What’s more, I have found these discussion questions to be a fundamental component of engaging students in course content. Each week I distribute the discussion questions for the following week, which I use to guide students’ reading of course materials and help them come to class ready to engage key concepts. As an added incentive for students to fully prepare for class discussion, these same questions are used for any exams administered in the course.
Chapter lesson plans, available for each chapter of the book, have components suitable for undergraduate and graduate instruction. Each lesson plan provides objectives, required readings, discussion questions, instructor insights, activities, key concepts, video links, and web resources.
Instructor insights are incorporated into each chapter lesson plan. For the discussion questions that are not clearly answered in the class readings, instructor insights are included to equip you with provocative questions, practical examples, and penetrating analysis that will help students gain a deeper, more nuanced understanding of the course content. For example, there are insights on why government involvement in family policy is necessary, what the consequences are of means-tested and universal policies, how the United States can meet the needs of children without pitting their needs against those of the elderly, and so forth.
PowerPoints, one for each chapter, summarize the main ideas of each chapter of the Bogenschneider textbook in an editable form that makes it easy for instructors to adapt them to their own teaching plans.
Video and audio resources—50 in total—put at the fingertips of instructors compelling footage of family policy luminaries guaranteed to engage the digital generation. For example, there are web links to politicians (e.g., President G.W. Bush, Prime Minister David Cameron, President John F. Kennedy, Ambassador/Governor Madeleine Kunin, President Barack Obama, Presidential Candidate John McCain, Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Congresswoman Pat Schroeder), researchers (e.g., Robert Bellah, Jonathan Haidt, Theda Skocpol, Theodora Ooms, David Popenoe, Robert Putnam, Judith Stacey, William Julius Wilson) and youth (e.g., Keli Carender, Malala Yousafzai).
Web resources include 25 links to cutting-edge information that can add breadth and depth to the course (e.g., biographies on early women reformers, census reports on troubling demographic trends, historical data on the rise in U.S. partisanship and polarization, Family Impact Seminar briefing reports for state policymakers on a myriad of family policy issues, international analyses on the extent and effectiveness of family policies, Kids Count data books and innovative ways that states have reported how children and families are faring, Pew Research polls on public perceptions of marriage and family, skill-building resources).
Test questions in the QuestBank include open answer questions for each chapter.

Other resources we have made available on the website of the Family Impact Institute (www.familyimpactseminars.org).

Sample syllabi for both undergraduate and graduate courses supply teaching objectives, guiding questions, readings, assignments, and activities for every class.
Assignments from family policy instructors across the country can help you fairly assess mastery of course concepts, while providing students with knowledge and skills that will be valuable beyond the course.

I extend my sincere appreciation to Olivia Little, Emily Parrott, and Jennifer Seubert who worked countless hours to make this second edition of an instructor’s manual a reality. I want to thank the family policy instructors who gave us permission to include their ideas in this book and on our website (see the teaching section of www.familyimpactseminars.org). This manual would be incomplete without a mention of those people who inspired this book and taught me about family policy. First and foremost, I tested the ideas in this manual on the students in my classes—whose questions sharpened my thinking, insights enriched my writing, and enthusiasm reaffirmed the value of recording these ideas for other students of family policy. Also, I am indebted to many Wisconsin legislators who over the years have helped me better understand how they use research to build better public policy for families.

I have five requests for instructors who use this manual. First, this manual is being provided free to anyone who adopts my text, so I ask that you do not copy or reproduce it for others who are not using the text in their classes. Second, please keep confidential access to this online instructor’s manual because it includes instructor insights and the answers to student assignments, activities, and discussion questions.

Third, I am hoping that this manual begins a dialogue and resource exchange on tools for teaching family policy. Please forward materials that you develop—activities, assignments, PowerPoints, syllabi, and teaching techniques—for posting on the website of the Family Impact institute to Jennifer Seubert at jseubert@wisc.edu or me at kpbogens@wisc.edu. Fourth, the best student-written family impact analysis papers can be forwarded to us for peer review and possible publication on our website. Finally, the authors would appreciate your feedback on how useful this manual has been and what we could do to make it better.

Good luck with your course! Teaching family policy is an important responsibility with far-reaching implications for families and the next generation of family policy professionals. As an anonymous student in a family policy class said: “You never know which of the students in your class may have the next great idea that could change the world.” Families, especially those who are most vulnerable, need a strong voice in policy decisions, now more than ever.

Sincerely,

Karen Bogenschneider

Rothermel Bascom Professor of Human Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Family Policy Specialist, University of Wisconsin-Extension