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).