Curriculum Review

● The curriculum for B.A. Political Science has evolved through the decades, in general,
influenced by:
○ Faculty expertise and interest; and
○ The current trends in the study of politics in the U.S. and Europe
● The two aforementioned influences tend to be correlated, as it was those who were
recruited or returned from graduate school abroad that introduced revisions in the
curriculum.
● There have been at least four major changes in the curriculum since the 1980’s, namely:
○ The adoption (1986) and discontinuance (1995) of an undergraduate thesis
requirement;
○ The introduction of core courses in political analysis, comparative politics, and
international politics;
○ The adoption of Social Science 103 that integrates calculus and statistics (in lieu
of the two as separate requirements); and
○ The re-adoption of calculus alongside statistics as quantitative analysis tool
courses.
● The two underlying factors in the curriculum revisions are:
○ Considerations of the desired competencies of a political science graduate; and
○ Considerations of faculty resources
● Identified as a basic competency in Political Science is the familiarity with these basic
concepts:
○ Philippine government and politics
○ Political dynamics
○ Comparative politics
○ National and local administration
○ International relations
● Political Science is an analytic discipline, thus it is a theory-informed intellectual activity.
● Agpalo (1998) and Caoili (2005) note the major shift in the discipline from being a study
of the State to the study of political processes, from “legalistic, historical, normative
approaches towards systemic, sociological, and behavioral ones”
● Political Dynamics (introduced by Dr. Agapalo in the 60’s) was a sub-field focusing more
on informal structures rather than formal structures of the government
● The sub-field’s relevance has been questioned, as the study of formal and non-formal
political structures are incorporated in other sub-fields (e.g. Comparative Politics)
● Adding into the question of the relevance of Political Dynamics is the prominence of
non-behavioral and outright anti-behavioral perspectives:
○ New Institutionalism - separates from the legalistic, formalistic, and functionalist
approaches of “old institutionalism”
○ Constructivism - a resurgent perspective, given the rise of postmodernism
● Another issue in discussions of the curriculum is the lack of quantitative analysis
requiring either calculus or statistics in faculty research, revealing a disjunct between the
methodology taught in the curriculum vs demonstrated in faculty research.
 ● Political science consists of training in a systematic study of political phenomena that is
different from the discipline of legal training (basically, it is not merely an undergraduate
course preparatory to law school).
○ The department discipline of viewing social interactions in the contexts of power
and authority ≠ the discipline of determining the application of the law.
● The institutional separation of political science and public administration occurred at U.P
in 1952 during the presidency of Dr. Vidal A. Tan.

Department Research and Publication

● It had been observed that there is very little built-in institutional support for research;
however,
● Two recently instituted programs have provided institutional support for research.
● A grant from the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) resulted in a textbook writing
project, producing a textbook for the undergraduate course of Philippine Government
and Politics.
● It had also been observed (60’s-00’s) that behavioral, institutionalist, and functionalist
perspectives dominated the research department.

Faculty Recruitment, Development, and Deployment

● Faculty recruitment issues include competition from private universities offering higher
salaries to professionals with graduate degrees.
● This leads the department to invest in the younger faculty.
● As in research, the topic counting the most faculty members is international (regional)
politics.
● Many members of the department faculty have attended/completed graduate studies
and research fellowships abroad.
● Many, as well, have done consultancies with agencies of the government and
appointments to cabinet-level positions.
● Professional engagement in the private sector is seen, as well (e.g: ASEAN, WHO, UN).

CONCLUSION
● Agenda for deliberation toward shaping the future of the department of Political Science:
○ How to define the tracks within a single B.A Political Science major- for instance,
academic vs. professional; government vs. NGO
○ How to give due cognition to public administration as a bona fide field of political
science
○ Determining the desired “balance” between different curriculum areas, given the
predominance of international politics in department activities
○ How to promote a culture of research by addressing several issues:
■ Developing institutional support
■ Developing a coherent research program
■ Addressing the disjunct between emphasis on quantitative research in the
curriculum and qualitative research by the faculty
 ■ Strengthening the tie-up between statistics, mathematics, and economics
requirements in the curriculum
● The challenge of “postmodernism” is also evident; the challenge of the positivist model of
social science.
○ Social science requires making philosophical choices, not contingent ones
● The faculty affirms a four-fold mission in regard to the discipline:
○ To deliver the best instruction;
○ To be a leading producer of new knowledge;
○ To be a principal node for knowledge dissemination; and
○ To be a leading voice in political discourse.