Roleplaying simulations for international relations education: Cases of Russian Federation and Uzbekistan

Arkadiy Alekseevich Eremin
Webster University Tashkent Campus, Uzbekistan

This article reports upon roleplaying simulations used for teaching and learning subjects in the field of international relations. It is based upon five years of experience gained by the author while teaching in RUDN University in Moscow, Russia, and Webster University in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The article aims to unravel both the value of roleplaying simulations in teaching international relations subjects, and how this practice correlates with the regional specificity of students in post-Soviet space. The main hypothesis advanced is that due to the peculiarities of traditional higher education processes in the countries of post-Soviet space, and the unique national traits of the students involved, the application of roleplaying simulations has provided additional motivation for the students. It has raised their level of immersion in their education, partially alleviating concerns about under-performance and low interest in the classroom activities among most of the students. The author argues that besides such scenario-based learning being in general a more pro-active way of learning, leading to better performance and overall facilitating competences formation process, it is specifically effective in learning environments that can be characterised as conservative and reactive, which for the most part is the case for post-Soviet space higher education.
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Author: Arkadiy Alekseevich Eremin PhD is an assistant professor at Webster University, Tashkent campus, Uzbekistan. He is an international relations scholar with 8 years of university-level teaching and research experience. Arkadiy's professional interest lies within research into new methods and approaches to effective instruction in post-Soviet higher education environments. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6217-6269 Email: arkadiyeremin@webster.edu Please cite as: Eremin, A. A. (2024). Roleplaying simulations for international relations education: Cases of Russian Federation and Uzbekistan. Issues in Educational Research, 34(2), 476-491. http://www.iier.org.au/iier34/eremin.pdf