Making and Remaking the Political: Engaging Students in a Policy Commission

In 2013 the Department of Politics and Public Policy at De Montfort University in the UK established a Policy Commission whereby students would work with academic staff to create a list of 100 ideas to change Britain. This paper reflects on the work of the Policy Commission, noting the manner by which the Commission engaged with students across the University. This paper argues that the Policy Commission is a means by which students are able to make and remake the Political landscape and in so doing connect students to the political world through a process of change that is part of a critical pedagogy. This marks a shift in the teaching of Politics and moves teaching outside the bounded nature of what can often be an oppressed and confined learning environment through structured regulations of what can and cannot be done because of constraints of time and learning outcomes.