Journal of Public Affairs Education

Cover Photo

“Mario the Dragon” statue, Drexel University campus. Photo courtesy of Drexel University.

Cover and Interior Deslgn

Val Escher

This article suggests how historical thinking, as a skill, might be integrated into MPA, MPP, and similar programs. I compare three modes of historical thinking—as a warehouse of analogues, a set of historical institutionalist models of stability and change, and as a “stream”—in terms of the likelihood that they provide useful skills for MPA/MPP graduates. I conclude that historical institutionalist models possess the greatest potential for skill building. Historical analogizing, though obviously a useful skill, is likely to be less portable than historical institutionalist models, and less useful as a tool for navigating the fragmented organizational terrain of the new governance. I argue as well that the potential of “thinking in time streams” is not as a skill, but rather as an ideal point against which skill at applying historical institutionalist models, and historical analogizing, might be judged.

Public administration is inherently an interdisciplinary field, prominently incorporating theory and methods from economics, political science, and sociology. Less obviously, however, MPA curricula include historical treatments of particular policy arenas, institutions, the administrative state, and the professions of policy analyst and public management. In addition, the case method that figures prominently in MPA pedagogy and the research MPA students perform depend on doing history. Yet, history as a scholarly endeavor is rarely included in basic courses, much less instruction in research methods. This essay explores the use of history in MPA curricula and how MPA students might acquire a deeper appreciation of history and how historians ply their craft.

Historians and scholars occasionally remind us of facts and lessons we seem to have forgotten. One such fact is that George Washington was among the first thinkers to frame a vision for educating public servants in the administration of a democratic republic. Washington envisioned an education system, solidly grounded in liberal studies, that would utilize processes of socialization to enhance a sense of national community. Specifically, he emphasized the importance of educating young persons in the science of government (his term) at American universities rather than sending them abroad. This article uses primary documents from the Library of Congress archives along with secondary sources to discern George Washington’s Enlightenment-based ideas for educating America’s youth in the science of government. It also reveals how Washington’s Enlightenment-based ideas on education for public administration (also his term) are still quite relevant in thinking about education for public service today.

Students entering Master of Public Administration (MPA) or Master of Public Policy (MPP) degree programs are not often historically oriented. However, a historical approach can be extremely useful in the classroom. This essay describes three guidelines for bringing history into the building of syllabi and lectures for an MPA/MPP course: teach theoretically, make the historical lessons relevant, and invoke history judiciously.

The inclusion of history courses in MPP programs offers distinct challenges but also important opportunities for students. I argue that the most obvious “uses” of history such as historical literacy or decision-making tools are less important than the reflective self-awareness that can be built through the careful study of the past. In particular, history builds familiarity with the long-term temporal frameworks of policy development and also helps students develop a critical sensibility about prevailing policy approaches. This is based in a historically grounded “confident humility” about both the potential and the limitations of policy analysis and application. Finally, I maintain that history can provide a source of deep optimism in a period of mistrust of public and private institutions. Although sometimes subtle, these attributes constitute a critical part of a full MPP curriculum.

Public policies are increasingly debated and approached from a war perspective that is clearly at odds with the academic focus on objective, evidence-based policy in the field of public affairs education. This paper introduces and defines the Powell-Bush Doctrine as policy interests and surrogates that have taken to waging war on issues, and do so increasingly through unilateral preemptive strikes and the use of overwhelming force with the sole objective of winning, regardless of public opinion, evidence, or consequences. This leads to discussion of the five major pitfalls of the evidence-based policy education in light of the Powell-Bush Doctrine: ideology/politics, emotion versus reason, lack of an evidentiary standard, poor messaging, and lack of a definition of public affairs. Each of these pitfalls is integrated with a NASPAA core competency and is informed by knowledge of other disciplines in the true nature of public affairs. The goal of this work is to identify the enemy of teaching evidence-based policy to better educate students in the field so they are less susceptible to the five pitfalls of the Powell-Bush Doctrine and more ready for the policy battlefield that is increasingly expected to lie ahead.

Many academic programs in public policy and public administration offer students practicum or capstone experiences that provide real-world training in their disciplines. Although past researchers have assessed the immediate benefits of these experiences for students, we examine their impact on students’ professional lives after graduation. Our results are based on surveys sent to all students who participated in the Public Policy Undergraduate Practicum Program at Stanford University over a five-year period. We find that taking the practicum course helped students improve both policy analysis skills (e.g., research design, policy writing) and general professional skills (e.g., project management, oral presentation). Students report making career decisions based on their practicum experiences, and finding their practicum skills useful across jobs in many industries. Overall, these results provide additional evidence for the benefits of offering students applied practicum experiences.

This article shows how certain practical/analytical skills are developed for “doing” leadership (Alvesson & Spicer, 2011) through what I call mindful classroom simulations in two upper-level social science courses. By drawing from various leadership definitions and Ellen J. Langer’s Mindfulness (1989) construct and through the use of an online open-ended questionnaire, participant-observation, and documentary/textual analysis, I demonstrate how well-designed and executed mindful classroom simulations afford individuals and groups the opportunity not only to gain discipline-specific knowledge and improve learning capabilities, but also to develop practical/analytical skills for doing leadership. These mindful classroom simulations can be used in undergraduate and graduate public policy, political science, and public administration courses because simulations are effective pedagogical tools for teaching both course content and transportable practical/analytical skills that successful active leaders require today. Several lessons are drawn from the teacher’s perspective on the effective use of these learner-centered mindful classroom simulations.

This is a reflection on the evolution of our market-based focus to teaching students about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA). Since March 2010, we have presented 12–15 hours of in-class training for students in public policy and administration or in public health, medicine, social work, gerontology, and psychology. We find that teaching the change associated with the ACA is simpler with a focus on pre- and post-enactment market financing. By dividing insurance into public and private markets, we emphasize the financing sources and requirements of each market. Students find it simpler to identify components of policy as it applies to markets. Each class focuses on the fact of change—not arguing about its utility. We use a case-based approach to illustrate specific policies pre- and post-ACA. Based on our classroom experience, a market-based focus on ACA-related reforms is an effective approach to teaching this complex topic.