POLICY BRIEFS

I have made a further attempt to create relevance in my course POLS2011 – Development and Change. Here, as well as the option to do standard essays as part of their assessment, students can choose to write a “policy brief”. Here are a couple of examples:

Microfinance in Australian aid to PNG. Write a policy brief to AusAID making a case for or against a major re-orientation towards microfinance in the make-up of the Australian aid program there.

Gender equality. Write a policy brief to the Minister for Education in a developing country of your choice arguing the case for targeting of female literacy as a development strategy.

Many students have commented that they found these enormously helpful and interesting. Some have said that it has had a part in determining their career aims. To put it in terms more prosaic than Freire – it moves their vantage point from that of being a mere spectator of engagement with the world to being a player in it.