Deconstructing the racial structure of public service through critical participatory practices

ABSTRACT

The renewal of efforts to disrupt or dismantle White supremacy in public service organizations and society has been met by strong cross-currents from the current political and policy climate in the United States. We see efforts by public administration faculty to incorporate more critical perspectives around pedagogy and public service as very hopeful. At the same time, we argue that the tools that administrators may need to disrupt institutionalized racist practices and structures go well beyond self-awareness and individual-level anti-racist actions. We situate public administration as a racialized practice – an evolving system of institutions and services that perpetuate exclusion, marginalization, and ineffectiveness through public action. In order to disrupt this system, we argue for a more critical approach within public affairs education through participatory models of engagement, where individual-level awareness and skillbuilding are explicitly coupled with organizational change approaches.

KEYWORDS:

• Critical pedagogy
• participatory practices
• public service
• racial justice
• social equity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Examples of this include the University of Cincinnati’s MPA, Social Justice program or Rutgers University-Camden’s MPA program focused on Community Development.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Prentiss Dantzler

Prentiss Dantzler is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and a Faculty Affiliate with the School of Cities at the University of Toronto. His current work focuses on housing policy, urban governance, and neighborhood change with a particular focus on urban poverty, housing assistance programs, race and ethnic relations, and community development. Dantzler’s work has been published in various academic journals with recent articles in Cities, Journal of Race, Ethnicity and the City, and the Journal of Public Management and Social Policy. He received his Ph.D. in Public Affairs with a concentration in Community Development from Rutgers University-Camden. He also holds an M.P.A. from West Chester University and a B.S. from Penn State University.

Kathleen Yang-Clayton

Kathleen Yang-Clayton is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Public Administration and Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Her current work focuses on the operationalization of racial equity practices inside public organizations that increase the public’s trust in government and improves government performance, especially but not exclusively in historically marginalized communities. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago. She also holds a M.S. from the University of Arizona and a B.A. from the University of Chicago.