The ALDAMA method: teaching the relationship between religion and politics in Middle East courses and the Iran case

Marina Díaz-Sanz and Lucía Ferreiro Prado

Chapter 12 in Teaching Critical Thinking in Political Science, 2025, pp 117-128 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: In this chapter, we propose a method to work through usual cognitive biases that appear in courses on politics and the Middle East and to develop skills that permit students to challenge deep-rooted “truths” about the world. Many of these biases come from the persistence of Orientalism, as, for instance, with regard to the “problematic” relationship between religion and politics in Muslim-majority countries. The Iran case is used to explain our five-step method − ALDAMA. First, we propose mapping extant students’ beliefs on the relationship between politics and religion in the region/Iran. Second, we lecture on where the “conventional wisdom” about the matter is theoretically located. Third, we urge students to analyze the film ARGO with fresher (and more critical) eyes. Next, students self-reflect on the learning process. Finally, we have students widen the range of approaches to the relationship between religion and politics in Iran through indigenous alternative stories.

Keywords: Cognitive biases; Critical thinking; Orientalism; Politics and religion; Iran; Learning with films (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035327539
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