Toward a Signature Pedagogy for Public Administration

Abstract

Every profession rests upon a particular body of text, thought, and practice. This corpus is taught, in all esteemed professions, by way of a signature pedagogy. Many conclude that, because the practitioners and academics of our profession must bridge theory and practice, and because the singular characteristic of our profession is that people make decisions and act under conditions of greater uncertainty than those enjoyed by other professions, Public Administration does not admit to such a pedagogy. This paper argues that these difficulties are opportunities, rather than obstacles, toward devising such a pedagogy, and that our students can learn how to (1) thrive on chaos, (2) make rapid decisions based on incomplete and biased information, (3) resolve novel situations even as apprehensive parties clamor to secure their interests, (4) collaborate with a team of fellow bureaucrats as they identify, share, and (5) master a situation that is filtered through a fog of quasi-accurate information. Students also can learn how to navigate the situation by identifying patterns for problem-solving, and employing sophisticated representations to develop and communicate their ideas, while grappling with important political, environmental, and social interests — by way of a pedagogy that is at once immersive and uncertain, yet directive and retentive. Suggestions are made about how to manage such a pedagogy, based on the research of behaviorists, cognitivists, and affectivists.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

C. F. Abel

C. F. Abel is chair of the Department of Government at Stephen F. Austin State University and teaches State and Local Government, Administrative Law, and Organization Theory. His interests currently include corruption in public agencies, Capitalism and Justice in Public Administration, pragmatism, and Evolutionary Critical Theory. He recently co-authored the book Justice and Public Administration with A. Sementelli, and his latest work, “The New Pragmatism, Anti-essentialism, and What is Universal: It’s the Situation All the Way Down,” is forthcoming in the International Journal of Organization Theory and Behavior.