The crisis of policy education in turbulent times: Are schools of public affairs in danger of becoming irrelevant?

ABSTRACT

The work of crafting sustainable solutions to complex policy problems requires decision makers and implementers to secure buy-in from a diverse set of stakeholders. Those stakeholders operate in policy ecosystems that span public, for-profit, nonprofit, and entrepreneurial sectors. This increasingly complex landscape requires schools of public affairs, policy, and administration to reconsider how to provide graduates with more advanced and integrated skill sets than ever before. Since 2013, several groups of public and educational leaders have met to discuss this challenge, culminating in a collective redesign effort driven to imagine a new public service education curriculum. This essay highlights core issues identified in collective discussions, and then proposes four principles to drive the curricular redesign process: (1) build sustained partnerships between public and educational sectors, (2) focus on competency-based learning, (3) instill a lifelong learning mind-set in students, and (4) integrate new modalities for learning.

KEYWORDS:

• Growth mind-set
• lifelong learning
• practitioner-educator divide
• public affairs education reform

Notes

1. For the purposes of this article, “public affairs education” and “policy education” refer to the broader set of public affairs, public policy, and public administration programs that train graduate students for careers in public service. Of course, these programs have divergent emphases and curricular content; this article presents a common frame of reference that is pertinent to all of these programs.

2. This crisis of faith is of such great concern to the academic community that the 2017 NASPAA conference theme tackled it head-on: Confidence in Public and Nonprofit Institutions: How Is It Built, How Is It Lost, and How Is It Regained?

3. Two rounds of exploratory interviews were conducted in 2013 and 2015 with over 100 national thought leaders from across the academic, policy, nonprofit, and social innovation sectors. Participatory workshops were held in September 2013 and February 2015, with a subsample of interviewees (30–35 for each event) to collectively identify core challenges perpetuating the academic–policy-making divide. Focus groups were conducted in 2015 with 20 congressional staff holding lead positions in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, asking participants to identify if, and how, they use academic research and how they rely on the expertise of the faculty who produce it. Participants were comprised of policy advisers, chiefs of staff, legislative directors, and Appropriation Committee clerks from Republican and Democratic offices. These perspectives were then shared at a second workshop (2015) for a final integration of viewpoints from both communities. Participants were then charged with developing a curricular template to address the capacity gaps.

4. The original schools funded by the Ford Foundation include University of Michigan 1967; Harvard 1968; University of California-Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, RAND, University of Pennsylvania-Fels 1969; University of Texas 1970; Duke University 1971. According to Ellwood (2008), neither the University of Pennsylvania-Fels (1969) nor the University of Minnesota (1970) was included in the Ford Foundation initiative, while Stanford University was supported to initiate a policy school as a spin-off of the Stanford Business School in the same period.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Angela M. Evans

Angela M. Evans is dean and fellow of J. J. “Jake” Pickle Regents Chair in Public Affairs at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, The University of Texas at Austin. Evans joined the LBJ School in 2009 as clinical professor of the practice of public policy after serving 40 years in public service to the U.S. Congress. The last 13 of these years she was the deputy director of the Congressional Research Service. Evans is fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. She recently served as president of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management. She also served on the governing board of the Network for Schools of Public Policy, Affairs and Administration. Evans earned a B.A. in sociology/psychology from Canisius College, summa cum laude, and an M.A. in experimental psychology with honors from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Jenny Knowles Morrison

Jenny Knowles Morrison’s research specializes in the study of human perception and sensemaking related to policy implementation processes. Her dissertation study, “From Global Paradigm to Grounded Policy: The Socio-Cognitive Construction of Participatory Development in Cambodia,” examined the complex historical, political, and cultural nexus fundamental to the success of collaborations between international donors and local actors in developing countries. Morrison’s current interests lie in building a curricular model to shape public affairs students into entrepreneurial policy catalysts, capacitated to work across the boundaries of policy, nonprofit, and social innovation sectors to achieve sustainable social impact.

Matthew R. Auer

Matthew R. Auer is dean and arch professor of Public and International Affairs at the School of Public and International Affairs, University of Georgia (UGA). Prior to his appointment at UGA, Auer served as vice president for Academic Affairs and dean of the Faculty at Bates College. Prior to Bates, Auer was dean of the Hutton Honors College at Indiana University (IU) and professor of International Environmental Affairs at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IU. Auer has authored or coauthored more than 60 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on environmental, energy, and foreign aid policy. Auer has served in a variety of public policy roles at national and international levels. He was senior adviser to the U.S. Forest Service from 2001 to 2006, and during that time was a member of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations Forum on Forests and to the International Tropical Timber Council.