Teaching planning theory as planner roles in urban planning education

Planning theory is often portrayed as a subject that urban planning students find too abstract and fail to see the relevance of. This paper advocates the perspective that planning theory can be made more student-friendly. This requires, firstly, that academic discussions about the relevance of planning theory for urban planning practice are integrated into the course module. If students are to appreciate planning theory, it requires that they understand how planning theory can inspire planning practice. Secondly, it requires careful considerations to the pedagogy of planning theory. The paper suggests that teaching planning theory as a variety of planner roles offers a helpful pedagogical approach for helping students construct their identities as urban planners. The paper builds on the author’s own experiences of teaching planning theory in a master’s urban planning programme, and has been written as part of the author’s completion of a pedagogical course for university lecturers (The pedagogical course for university lecturers is a 10 ECTS course for assistant professors, which provides the participants with the pedagogical and didactic foundations for a university career).