Journal of Public Affairs Education

Like a sparrow that has flown, the sense of safety and invincibility that Americans used to enjoy was weakened by 9/11 and eviscerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Ripple effects from these events demonstrate the need to equip students with the grit and resilience to deliver public services with compassion in the midst of uncertainty. To do so intertwines two subjects – emotional labor and the public encounter – and together they illuminate what is missing in traditional public administration education. At a time when the certainties of spreadsheets come up short, the public encounter becomes more important. Now is an opportunity to re-center our pedagogy and focus on the holistic nature of public service. Emotion and interpersonal competence are as important as rationality and cognitive competence. With attention to introductory, capstone, leadership, and HR courses, suggestions on how to integrate these subjects are offered.

This paper explores the Thailand Qualification Framework (TQF), particularly, in the discipline of Public Administration in Thailand, its development, purposes, and feedback from academia. The investigation from previous research conducted before and after the enactment of TQF-PA on public administration teaching and learning in Thailand found an improvement in both number and quality of public administration programs at all levels of education from undergraduate to master’s and doctoral in terms of course requirements, qualifications of teachers, and teachers-students ratio, etc. The paper also attempts to answer the “Big Questions” raised by scholars in teaching public administration in the Thai culture during the new disruptive technology and dynamic of unpredictable situations like the coronavirus pandemic facing every government around the world today.

While the praxis of public administration in India is documented in the literature, its pedagogy, and the formal dissemination of its knowledge, is relatively unexamined. This study determines the status of public administration pedagogy in India through a review of the academic programs in public administration at accredited state, central, and deemed universities. After reviewing a sample of the syllabi of public administration programs, the academic context of the field, and the areas of key emphasis, this paper explores the conceptualization of public administration as an independent academic discipline in India. This study makes a significant contribution to global comparative public administration, and also contributes to developing the nascent literature on public administration pedagogy in present day India and South Asia.

On October 27, 2018, a gunman killed eleven people attending Shabbat services in the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA. For many – both Jews and non-Jews – this tragedy served as a wake-up call about the persistence of antisemitism in the United States today. MPA curricula and public affairs research have rarely addressed contemporary antisemitism, yet we argue for including conversations about antisemitism in MPA classrooms. This article serves as a resource for the public affairs teaching community so our colleagues can feel prepared and empowered to address antisemitism in their classrooms.

As student demand for nonprofit management education (NME) grows, new program offerings proliferate. While longitudinal data track the development of graduate NME programs, their curricula and location, we know less about the trajectory of undergraduate programs. Preliminary research finds evidence of undergraduate programs that are more diverse and span a greater number of locations than ever before. As a compilation, these findings facilitate analysis of the institutionalization of NME by expanding the focus beyond courses to include program development (certificates, majors, and/or minors). The results enable data-driven discussions, highlighting NME distinctiveness in facilitating the development of student engagement with community.

Debates about trade-offs among values are central to the field of public administration and to graduate education in public affairs. Accreditation guidelines from the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA) direct graduate programs to articulate the public service values that guide their curricula. Moreover, student ability to articulate a public service perspective is one of the universal competencies for NASPAA accredited programs. Scholars have defined and cataloged myriad values that guide work in professional public service. Still, many programs lack insight into how new students perceive and prioritize public service values. This essay advocates measuring student public service value priorities to aid programs in their discussions of public service values in curriculum design. An example using Q-methodology and data from a new MPA student cohort is reported to illustrate the value of investigating public service value priorities. This essay concludes by describing how an understanding of student public service values priorities can help faculty maintain a curriculum responsive to students.

An integral part of a public affairs education is our ability as educators to adapt and respond to the skills needed for a diverse and changing workforce. Historically, public administration programs have been responsive to an ever-changing workforce by the way we deliver curriculum (e.g., face to face, online, hybrid). This paper invites us to consider a shift in our thinking about course delivery and questions how we can provide an immersive learning experience for our fully online students. In this paper, I suggest Master of Public Administration programs (MPA) should consider the use of telepresence robots so fully online students can also experience a more immersive learning environment. Documenting 20 student experiences in a rural, Western state, this research offers the rich potential for us to rethink the future of public administration course delivery and offer an additional access point for education.