John Ishiyama APSA Candidate Statement

Career and Accomplishments

John Ishiyama is a Professor of Political Science and Director of the Ronald E. McNair Program at Truman State University, the highly-selective, public liberal arts and sciences university of Missouri. The federally-funded McNair program prepares undergraduate students from first-generation college and low-income backgrounds, and/or students from ethnic/racial groups underrepresented in higher education, to pursue a graduate degree. Ishiyama has been with the program since 1992, and has been Director since 2003.

Ishiyama firmly believes in the “teacher-scholar” model, which holds that to be an effective teacher one must also be a productive scholar. Ishiyama has received numerous awards for teaching at Truman, statewide, and nationally; he was named the 2004 Council for the Support of Education (CASE)/Carnegie Foundation Professor of the Year from Missouri, a National Carnegie Foundation Scholar in 2003, and received the Missouri Governor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2003.  At the same time he has maintained a very active research agenda, having published three books and 84 refereed journal articles and book chapters, in journals such as American Political Science Review, Comparative Political Studies, Comparative Politics, Political Research Quarterly, Political Science Quarterly, Social Science Quarterly, Europe Asia Studies, Party Politics, PS: Political Science and Politics and Communist and Post Communist Studies.

Ishiyama is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Political Science Education, the journal of the APSA Political Science Education Section. He has served as a member of the APSA Teaching and Learning Committee, as Chair of the Political Science Education Section, as one of the founding organizers of the APSA Teaching and Learning Conference, and on several journal editorial boards. He is also currently President of the International Studies Association-Midwest.
  
Statement of Views

I believe in APSA as a positive force supporting teaching and learning in political science. I have not always felt this way about the organization, but I am encouraged by the changes that have occurred in the past few years. In particular, the association’s recent effort to reach out to political scientists at primarily “teaching” institutions is especially encouraging. The establishment of the Teaching and Learning Conference, the appearance of JPSE, the establishment of a standing committee on Teaching and Learning, and the commitment by APSA to develop resources helpful to political science educators (such as those related to learning assessment and civic education), are all signs of positive change in APSA. APSA must continue to promote and expand these activities to better serve all political scientists.