Journal of Public Affairs Education

Cover design by Val Escher. Cover design property of NASPAA. Cover photo: The University of Maryland School of Public Policy is located in Van Munching Hall on the College Park campus.

Policy makers constantly struggle to reconcile policy and politics—to square what they want to do on the merits with what consent requires. Academic research and teaching on public policy, however, have typically separated policy argument from political analysis. Some authors recommend solutions to public problems, whereas others examine the politics of actual policies. I propose a combined conception of policy research and teaching that joins policy analysis and political analysis. This approach links elements of economics and political science to approximate the actual process of statecraft. I also describe how I built courses on public policy for undergraduates and graduate students using this conception and the implications for pedagogy. Unfortunately, academic trends are against such breadth. Research on policy is becoming more specialized and methodological, remote from actual government. Involvement in policy making, however, may draw some scholars toward research and teaching that combines policy and political perspectives.

The role of the client in policy analysis has been shifting in the professional field and in academia. In this paper, I reflect on the client orientation of graduate studies in policy analysis. I propose a framework for teaching policy analysis that relies on theoretical foundations but also uses integrated practical application and client-oriented learning throughout the master’s curriculum. I then illustrate the framework’s application through a sample of highly client-integrated graduate programs in public affairs, focusing particularly on the policy analysis curriculum at The New School’s Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy. Evidence suggests that an integrated and continuous client-based approach is the exception; most schools with a client component relegate it to a single capstone at the end of the degree, and few publicize the client work as central to the program. Through a continuous client-based approach, students get repeated practice at real-time policy analysis, learn how to adeptly construct an evidence-based and coherent argument for a variety of issues, and explore ways to confidently communicate their analysis and recommendations succinctly and persuasively in written and verbal form. The integrated client-based curriculum creates value not only for the students, but for the outside clients and the school overall.

This paper discusses the design and delivery of a master’s-level course in policy analysis for senior public servants studying for a Masters of Public Administration Executive (EMPA) degree with the Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG). ANZSOG is a consortium of government and university partners that was established in 2002 to enhance the management and policy capability of public sector leaders. The course sets out to develop sophisticated, creative policy design skills in its students, using a highly practical pedagogical approach that offers practice in negotiating the complexities and subtleties of policy option design in the real world.

Most young Americans use Wikipedia. Among those in the age range of most MPA and MPP students (18–29 years old), 62% report turning to Wikipedia (Pew, 2012), although they probably know it is taboo to cite it as a source in an academic paper. Ironically, however, encouraging students to strengthen Wikipedia may be pedagogically valuable. During the 2010–2011 academic year, the Wikimedia Foundation launched WikiProject U. S. Public Policy, “aimed at finding better ways to recruit experts and students to help improve Wikipedia content” (//bit.ly/jpae-w). This case study of one Wikipedia project examines the pedagogical utility of using open-source, wiki-based assignments in policy analysis courses.

This article reviews two sets of generalizable lessons learned from adapting pedagogical material on the case method and policy workshops for Israeli Master of Public Policy programs. First, we discuss the considerations involved in the development of a cohesive series of original case studies in the Israeli context. Second, we review the creation of a specific exercise that integrates the case method and policy workshops pedagogy in the classroom—namely a Political Strategy Appendix—as an example of how the development of original pedagogical material in different settings may lead to instructional innovations that can be useful to the international community of policy scholars. Building on Stokes’s (1986) analogy of policy workshops as “flight simulators,” this article contributes to the recognition that as the worldwide community of policy scholars continues to grow and diversify, contextually specific flight simulators will enrich policy instruction both in and beyond U. S. borders.

New challenges in our global and regional economies question managers’ ability to navigate change in the years ahead. Because colleges and universities are the incubators for future leaders, we argue that MPA programs across the country must train leaders of public organizations in organizational change and leadership skills to be successful during this transformation. Although a growing body of literature focuses on how employees and managers perceive organizational change and change management (e.g., culture change, effect of globalization), a considerable rift exists between the analysis and the practical application. Filling this gap, and in keeping within NASPAA’s accreditation guidelines to prepare students to be “leaders, managers, and analysts in the professions of public affairs, public administration, and public policy,” the purpose of this research is to identify the skills required by graduate students of public administration programs to effect change in public organizations and determine whether NASPAA-accredited MPA programs are providing these skills as reflected in course curricula and program catalogs. We caution that in light of NASPAA’s emphasis on universal competencies, coupled with the current economic and fiscal constraints faced by all levels of government, the ability of public affairs and administration graduate students to master organizational change skills should be considered a fundamental objective in the assessment of NASPAA-accredited MPA programs’ learning outcomes.

For more than two decades, good governance reform policy has swept through sub-Saharan Africa like a wildfire. Although government watchers have assumed that this reform initiative is critical for achieving development, little attention has been paid to how it affects and is affected by public affairs education and training. Drawing on the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), this article examines how the curriculum integrates unique local and regional conditions with good governance principles advocated by several international entities. Then it compares the curriculum to the new NASPAA standards of public affairs education and training and assesses how well it matches those standards. The analysis shows that there is a substantial convergence between the GIMPA curriculum and NASPAA accreditation principles and standards. We question how these principles can be reconciled with local sociocultural conditions. We conclude by making observations about how to strengthen the curriculum and improve the quality of public affairs education and training for development management.

College graduates need to possess strong writing skills before entering the workforce. Although many public administration undergraduate programs primarily focus on policy, finance, and management, we fall short of a larger goal if students cannot communicate results to a variety of audiences. This article discusses the results of a national survey, which concludes that few undergraduate public affairs programs require an administrative/technical writing course. Based on pedagogical theories, this article describes the design of a newly implemented, undergraduate, administrative writing course. The article concludes with lessons learned, provides recommendations for programs considering requiring an administrative writing course, and discusses future research.

End-of-course student evaluations are frequently used to evaluate university faculty teaching. However, employing midterm student feedback has been found to be instrumental in informing faculty about instructional quality and improving student learning outcomes. This study examined and compared the effects on classroom instruction of using a midterm student feedback (MSF) survey in the graduate courses of two faculty, an untenured professor in public administration and a full professor in education. The researchers gathered data from 122 students over two years for three courses in 6 classes—4 in public administration, 2 in education. Results indicate that midterm student feedback offered insight for faculty at both levels. In addition, when faculty make instructional changes based on MSF data, students’ responses improve. Implications for future research are also discussed.

University and college experiential education takes many forms: internships, practica and other field experience, volunteerism, community service, and community-based service learning, as well as community activities attached to college courses. Given the joint involvement of university and community institutions in experiential education and the diverse motivations for encouraging student community involvement, this academic practice can be viewed through three lenses: (a) as a form of student learning, (b) as a public policy instrument to promote student civic engagement, and (c) as a service delivery tool for community organizations. Much of the research about student service learning has emphasized the first of these perspectives, examining service learning’s impact on a student’s pedagogical experience and the campus ability to support service learning. This article focuses on the nature of the partnership between campuses and community organizations. We begin with a discussion of how prior literature describes this partnership and then use generalizable community data to explore what host organizations suggest are the most useful partnership characteristics.