Introduction to the issue

On behalf of the editorial team, our editorial board, and the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration, we would like to thank you for reading the latest issue of the Journal of Public Affairs Education. The articles, case study, and book reviews in this issue focuses on the challenges in public affairs education and how these concerns can be address through sustainable solutions.

The issue starts with an editorial on the future of public affairs, reporting the findings of a workgroup of deans from the top schools of public affairs. In the editorial, Angela Evans (Dean of the University of Texas Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs), Dr. Jenny Knowles Morrison, and Dr. Matthew R. Auer (Dean of the University of Georgia School of Public and International Affairs) discuss the challenges facing our field and how schools of public affairs can address these issues going forward. The group of public affairs education leaders argue for a refocusing of programs and curricula toward four principles: “(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” (Evans, Morrison, and Auer, 2019, 285).

The next articles in the issue move to a more granular level, in particular examining problems and providing guidance for peer reviewers and the use of nonprobability sampling in public administration. “The Art of Peer Review” enumerates the problems of the peer review process as observed by the authors who also serve as editors of major journals in the fields. In the article, the authors, including the two of us, argue for peer reviewers to be focused on care, professionalism, and rigor (Hall, Hatcher, McDonald, Shields, and Sowa, 2019). The essay provides guidance that for PhD students and newly minted faculty members. Instructors teaching and mentor PhD students will find the essay useful. In “When Attaining the Best Sample is Out of Reach,” Rivera (2019) discusses how public administration research struggle to obtain probabilistic samples and explores the utility of using nonprobability sampling techniques, such as “convenience sampling, purposive sampling, and sample matching.”

The issue moves back to a more macro-level focus by including an article by McNeely and Ashton (2019) examining critical gaps throughout Canadian public affairs programs and an article by Riley and Johansen (2019) on the need for incorporating indigenous issues into the public affairs curriculum. McNeely and Ashton examine the curriculum of 22 Master of Public Policy and Master of Public Administration programs in Canada. Teaching analytical tools and sociopolitical contexts in rural environments are identified as critical gaps in the curriculum. Going forward, the authors argue for curriculum in Canadian public affairs programs to include “graduate coursework centered on rural policy sectors” (364). Riley and Johansen discuss the importance examining indigenous issues and create a framework for how curricula can be adjusted to accomplish this goal. According to the authors, “creating a learning environment that embraces indigenous students is to incorporate indigenous issues into the core curriculum, include indigenous ways of knowing into the program, provide for indigenous focused student assessment, and ensure cultural appropriateness” (387).

Public administrators need guidance on making evidence-based decisions. Thus, teaching effective decision-making processes is a primarily goal of public affairs education, but instructors often struggle to highlight the differences between decision-making in theory and in practice. And decision-making becomes even more important when there are conflicted values and/or viewpoints go against the tenets of fairness and democratic values. The case study by Elias, McCandless, and Chordiya (2019) examining administrative decision-making around the Confederate statue removal in Baltimore, Maryland provides guidance for decision-making in public sector environments with competing values and ensure fairness.

Lastly, in preparing book reviews for this issue, we focused on books that examine large portions of the field, in particular a book that is appropriate for a survey of public administration course and a book on the current state of local government planning. In the first book review, Larson (2019) reviewed Essentials of Public Service, and the second book review was by Jacobs (2019), who looked at Sustainability and Resilience Planning for Local Governments.

As public affairs education seeks to face the challenges of the current political environment and administration in the future, we hope the articles, case study, and reviews in this issue will provide some guidance.