Teaching
How can I help my students succeed, not just in my courses, but more importantly, in their future careers? How can I help them grow as emerging professionals in their field? These are the questions I ask myself when designing new courses, assignments, and learning experiences.
“[Prof. Eidelman] provides outstanding evidence of effective and innovative teaching."
— Jury for the 2023 CPSA Prize for Teaching Excellence
For my efforts in and out of the classroom, I have been awarded the CPSA Prize for Teaching Excellence by the Canadian Political Science Association, the IMI Faculty Award by the University of Toronto's Institute for Management and Innovation, and the USC Teaching Honour Roll Award of Excellence at Western University.
Courses
I currently teach, or have recently taught, six courses in the University of Toronto’s Master of Public Policy and Master of Urban Innovation programs.
PPG2017 Urban Policy
Master of Public Policy program
The goal of this experiential learning course is to challenge MPP students to view public policy through an urban lens, and inspire students to pursue policy careers focused on cities. The course is organized around field trips to meet MPP alumni working on a broad range of urban policy challenges in local, regional, provincial, and federal government, and culminates in a final project co-designed with partners in the non-profit sector, including the United Way Greater Toronto and The Shift.
"All PPG courses should be taught like this one. The focus on experiential learning, talking to real-world professionals and preparing a real-world policy paper for an NGO added incredible value to my educational experience."
— Student evaluation (2021)
PPG2012 Making an Impact from the Outside
Master of Public Policy program
This limited-enrolment, community-engaged learning course exposes students to public policy making from the perspective of non-governmental organizations and provides students with the skills necessary to achieve policy change from outside government. The course takes students out of the classroom and into the community through site visits, field assignments, and close interaction with experienced practitioners.
“The course was very practical and hands-on. I learned a lot of new skills and was really pushed outside of my comfort zone to learn new things which was fantastic.”
— Student evaluation (2019)
PPG1000 Governance & Institutions
Master of Public Policy program
This core course in the MPP program provides students with foundational knowledge of key governance structures and political institutions across all orders of Canadian government, such as the Constitution, the Westminster parliamentary system, federalism, and the courts. We also consider emerging challenges to existing institutions, including the rise of cities, and the importance of Indigenous reconciliation.
"This was for sure my favourite class. It was clear everything we did was going to be applicable to our careers in public policy."
— Student evaluation (2020)
PPG2016 Comparative Urban Governance
Master of Public Policy program
This multidisciplinary graduate seminar, jointly offered by the School of Cities and the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, compares how cities and city-regions around the world organize themselves to deal with urban policy problems. In 2023, I co-designed and co-taught the course with Don Iveson, former Mayor of Edmonton and Chair of Canada's Big City Mayors Caucus, and Canadian Urban Leader at the School of Cities.
"I found the contents of this course to be really fascinating. It was really nice to have really thoughtful leaders of urban governance come to speak in our classes... they provided a lot of practical knowledge and insight to complement our course content."
— Student evaluation (2023)
MUI1060 Local and Regional Government
Master of Urban Innovation program
The goal of this course is to better understand how Canadian cities are formally governed — how local and regional governments are structured, what levels of government are responsible for different local services, and how local policy decisions are made, including the municipal budget process. Assignments include an interactive budgeting simulation, as well as an environmental scan report co-developed with partners in municipal government.
"Before our courses started, I was worried about this course the most as I was extremely unfamiliar with the topic. Yet, the way that the materials were taught really helped build an understanding from the ground up."
— Student evaluation (2020)
MUI1050 Urban Politics
Master of Urban Innovation program
This core course aims to develop students’ political acuity by examining the political forces at work in cities, and the political environment in which urban policy decisions are made. Designed as a “global classroom,” the course investigates the role of organized interests, institutions, and ideas in urban governance through case studies and conversations with urban scholars in cities around the world.
"[Eidelman] makes 3 hours worth of class material incredibly engaging."
— Student evaluation (2021)
Educational Leadership
In addition to my regular teaching duties, I have also led various educational initiatives and served in several leadership roles related to teaching and training.
In 2018, I founded the Urban Policy Lab, the Munk School’s “training ground for urban policy professionals,” to offer students new professional development and experiential learning opportunities related to cities and public policy through graduate fellowships, skills workshops, networking and mentorship programs, and collaborative research and civic education projects.
As Lab director, I have awarded 16 MPP/MGA students with graduate fellowships, who under my direction and mentorship, help coordinate the Lab’s skills development programming and participate in work-integrated learning placements that I organize with several partner organizations, such as the City of Toronto, the Pembina Institute, and the Canadian Urban Institute.
I have also overseen the design and delivery of more than two dozen skills workshops and professional development initiatives, attended by more than 650 students at the Munk School, including:
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Urban Policy Lab Case Competition — the School’s only annual case competition focused on city issues
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Career and Skills Day - a day-long series of skills and career development workshops
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Munk in the City - a month-long experiential learning initiative that challenges students to explore and report on key election issues in each of Toronto’s 25 municipal wards
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Urban Exchange Speed Networking – a speed networking event connecting students with urban policy professionals across the Greater Toronto region
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Urban Policy Mentorship Program — helping students grow their professional networks and cultivate meaningful relationships with leaders in the field
In 2017, I was appointed the former School of Public Policy & Governance’s first Associate Director for Teaching Innovation, with a mandate to help instructors to experiment with new teaching formats and methods, and promote the School’s commitment to teaching excellence. In this role, I created a first-of-its-kind partnership with Evergreen Canada, which led to the creation of a new experiential learning course (PPG2012/13, above), and spearheaded several new pedagogical initiatives benefitting both faculty and students, including the SPPG Teaching Forum, the School’s first-ever faculty development program focused on teaching and pedagogy.
In 2020-21, I was awarded a Community-Engaged Learning Faculty Fellowship by the Centre for Community Partnerships — one of only six faculty selected across U of T — to develop further community-engaged learning opportunities in my courses. I have also been awarded four Education and Outreach Initiative Grants by the University of Toronto’s School of Cities to develop skills workshops and learning modules for both students and policy professionals.
Beginning in 2021, I have designed and led the annual MUI Integrative Case Competition, which challenges students to apply the knowledge and skills developed across all their first-year MUI courses to a real-world innovation problem developed in partnership with the Toronto Region Board of Trade.
Also in 2021, I designed and led the Urban Leadership Exchange, a certificate of completion program in urban innovation offered by the IMIx executive education program. A total of 44 urban professionals from across Canada enrolled in the two-day virtual program, which paired MUI faculty with thought leaders and practitioners to deliver interactive workshops on urban innovation topics.