Doing world politics and social media: digital practice and open education in International Relations

Pears, Louise ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3847-6843, Jester, Natalie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7995-3028, Le Bourdon, Madeleine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1222-8745 and Papamichail, Andreas ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8938-6410 (2025) Doing world politics and social media: digital practice and open education in International Relations. European Political Science. (In Press)

Text 15812 Pears, L et al (2026) IR social media pedagogy de-anonymised final.pdf - Accepted Version Restricted to Repository staff only until 17 May 2026. Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives 4.0. Download (229kB)

Abstract

This paper sets out the need for, and potential offered by, introducing social media into global challenges teaching. We argue that teaching on global challenges should involve teaching with, through and about social media as a place of politics. This paper suggests that using social media in our teaching can help to equip students with critical digital literacies- as a set of skills for engaging, understanding and analysing digital materials. We also argue that digital spaces can offer real potential to open dialogue and thought on global challenges in our classrooms. The article presents reflections from our own classroom experiences to think through how social media offers the potential to re-work hierarchies and unpack taken for granted knowledges of world politics. In doing so we are engaged with wider academic discussions on how digital pedagogies are connected to and can enact critical pedagogies. Finally, the article sets out a research agenda that can take this forward to better understand how students learn through social media and how we can best incorporate this into our teaching as a discipline.

Item Type:	Article
Article Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Social media; Global challenges; Digital literacies; Open pedagogy; Critical pedagogy
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HM Sociology H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology. > HV6001 Criminology J Political Science > JA Political science (General) J Political Science > JZ International relations
Divisions:	Schools and Research Institutes > School of Business, Computing and Social Sciences
Depositing User:	Natalie Jester
Date Deposited:	04 Feb 2026 11:20
Last Modified:	04 Feb 2026 11:30
URI:	https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/15812

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