Quiet voices: Misalignment of the three Cs in public administration curriculum

ABSTRACT

Scholars preach congruence between the three Cs (concepts, context, and content) of public administration in order to keep the field relevant. The current context of public administration is embodied by diversity of thought. One such type of diversity is descriptive and symbolic representation of women. This research examines the initial socialization of many public administrators to the field by performing a content analysis of the syllabi of highly ranked MPA programs and evaluating what percentage of assigned authors are female and how the curriculum addresses gender diversity. On average, women write less than 20% of required readings and only 5% of courses have specific units on gender diversity. This suggests the content and concepts taught in the MPA classroom do not match the context of the field. The article provides strategies for instructors desiring to increase the alignment of the three Cs in their curriculum.

KEYWORDS:

• Curriculum
• diversity
• gender
• representation

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Nicholas Zingale, Raul Pacheco-Vega, Joseph Mead, Michael Spicer, and participants at the 2016 PA Theory Network Conference for their helpful comments. The author especially thanks all the instructors that sent syllabi and answered questions. Excellent research assistance was provided by Estephany Rodriguez and Mark Henning.

Notes

^1. For simplicity, this study assumes a binary (male/female) gender. However, I recognize these are not the only way to experience gender. This gender-normative definition thus inherently excludes other types of experience.

^2. This framework is a result of a series of personal communications with Nicholas Zingale in the spring of 2016. While Zingale has not yet published this framework, I want to acknowledge the initial idea as his.

^3. U.S. News and Reports released new rankings in 2016 while I was collecting data for the project. Four new schools made it into the top 50 schools. Of them, NC State was the only one with an MPA program, but it did not have a clear first core course. Indiana-Purdue offers a Master of Public Affairs while Brandeis and Georgia Tech offer a Master of Public Policy. Therefore, these schools did not fit my final selection criteria, so I did not include any of them in my final sample.

^4. As stated in the methodology section, case studies were excluded from the sample. However, this Harvard Business School article was not used as a typical case study in the course, so I included it in the sample.

^5. #womenalsoknowstuff, @womenalsoknow, http://womenalsoknowstuff.com, and @AWPARocks, respectively.

^6. Thank you to a PA Theory Network conference participant for this idea.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Megan E. Hatch

Megan E. Hatch is an assistant professor of urban policy and city management at Cleveland State University. Her research focuses on the causes and consequences of social policies that disproportionately affect vulnerable populations.