Teacher Training: Reflecting on the US Election with Professor Dr. Paul Rundquist

On November 19, DAI Sachsen colaborated with Professor Dr. Paul Rundquist from the University of Halle and the Landeszentrale für Schule und Bildung (LASUB) for a teacher workshop on the complexities of the U.S. election results. The event was moderated by EducationUSA Leipzig’s Erica Larson Bautze and organized together with Michael Pfau and Andrea Eder-Panev from the Karl Heine Schule Leipzig.

Professor Rundquist provided the roughly 60 teacher attendees with detailed insights into the complex U.S. election system. He delved into the decentralized voting system with rules and regulations put together by each state and answered questions about the electoral college and its role in deciding the presidency. Prof. Rundquist talked about what a U.S.-ballot looks like and which issues are decided on. There was a lot of interest around any remaining pathways to the presidency for President Trump. The presentation included a fundamental look at terms such as “right-wing,” “conservative,” “liberal,” and “left-wing” and how their meaning has changed in recent years.

In addition to discussing the November election results, Erica Larson Bautze from EducationUSA Leipzig introduced Saxon teachers to sources they can use in the classroom when teaching the election and about US-topics. Teachers were pointed toward the Ask An American program offered by EducationUSA which brings Americans into Saxon classrooms to provide a chance for further exchange on US topics and exposure to native speaker English.  

You can rewatch Paul Rundquist’s talk about the US election in the video below.