From the editors

The Winter 2018 issue of Journal of Public Affairs Education (JPAE) ushers in a new era for NASPAA’s flagship journal. Not only does it mark the release of the first issue with Taylor and Francis as its publisher, moving away from the heritage of self-publication that NASPAA has held in the past, but it is also the first issue released by its new editorial team. It is with pride and humility that we assume the editorial responsibility for the journal. We believe that JPAE serves an important role in our field. The journal is the primary forum for the advancement of scholarship on teaching public servants, directing our academic programs, and ensuring the field protects the values of efficiency, effectiveness, and fairness. We would like to express our appreciation to the outgoing editorial team of Dr. David A. Schultz of Hamline University and Dr. Marieka M. Klawitter of the University of Washington for protecting this legacy.

Change is a constant in public affairs, as in all things, but it is important to protect and foster effective practices. The impact of JPAE on our field is one that needs to be preserved and cultivated. Starting with its founding editor, H. George Frederickson, the journal strives to connect theory with public education to ensure that the instruction in our programs are rooted in evidence (Perry, 2010). Frederickson created the journal for a straightforward but important reason: to encourage our field to focus more on teaching in our scholarly discussions. James Perry, the second editor of the journal, continued this vision. On the celebration of its 15th birthday, Perry (2010) commented that the journal serves two purposes: providing support to the street-level bureaucrats in the classroom and legitimizing pedagogical research.

As NASPAA’s flagship publication, JPAE needs to maintain a high level of quality to serve as the field’s forum for pedagogical discourse. We intend to build on the journal’s legacy as our field’s forum for discussing tools and methodological approaches in public affairs classrooms. To accomplish this goal, we are implementing the following plan for JPAE: First, we recognize the importance of the case study method in the classroom as a tool to illustrate theory and practice. We have a case study editor to recruit manuscripts for the journal’s case studies section, with the intent of publishing one peer-reviewed case study per issue. The case studies section will focus on cases that cover public administration concepts and include a teaching note on how to use the case in the classroom. (For those who may be interested in writing a case study for the section, a primer on how to write case studies will be published in our spring issue [see Hatcher, McDonald, & Brainard, 2018].)

Second, we recognize the importance of pedagogical research through the journal’s articles and also an expanded book review section. Under our leadership, the book review section will be an important component of the overall journal. Two or three book reviews will be published per issue. This component of the journal will be led by a book review editor who will continue to include reviews of important books from our field, but who will also expand to other fields that can offer our instructors tested advice for the classroom and program management. This approach will not only help our readership stay up to date with what is being published in the discipline, but also inform them of the recent work being conducted throughout academia.

Third, we recognize the importance of public scholarship (i.e., the dissemination of findings to a broad audience). Accordingly, we have a social media editor who will help to distribute the journal’s work to the public. By having an active social media editor, we hope to continue the public scholarship role of JPAE. An active social media section will help JPAE’s material to reach a wide audience, or, as described by Perry (2010), to make “the scholarship of teaching more public, more transparent, and more accessible to all professions” (p. 115).

Fourth, we recognize that NASPAA and JPAE serve a growing and diverse population of programs, both domestically and internationally. To increase participation in the journal from faculty at all NASPAA member programs, we have an international and engagement editor to work with and solicit manuscripts from faculty at international institutions and smaller programs within the United States.

Last, we will continue the journal’s focus on helping academic administrators to manage their programs. We would encourage more research into community-based partnerships between public affairs programs and local public agencies and nonprofits. These types of partnerships help to build support for public affairs programs, strengthen local administrative capacity, and offer our students experiential learning opportunities.

To help us, JPAE will have a superb team of associate editors. Dr. Lori Brainard of George Washington University will serve as the case studies editor, Dr. Jessica Terman of George Mason University will serve as the book review editor, Dr. Alicia Schatteman of Northern Illinois University will serve as the social media editor, and Dr. Kendra Stewart of the College of Charleston will serve as an international and engagement editor. Winn Decker, a PhD student from North Carolina State University, will also be working with the Journal as the assistant editor. We believe that this team presents a strong and diverse editorial team that can achieve our vision for JPAE.