Teaching Public Policy: Theory, Research, and Practice

The curriculum of public policy education is currently undergoing an introspective examination, as academics and practitioners develop programs to reflect the dramatic theoretical, informational, technological, and managerial changes of the 1980s. This book is a response to some of these creative and innovative instructional techniques. The text covers policy theory research and a number of substantive topics, including financial management, budgeting, ethics, computers, and experiential learning.

The essays are grouped in seven separate areas, each emphasizing successful teaching strategies. Organizational theory is the first area to be treated, with discussions of public administration education and democratic values; a reflection-in-action model; and the role of ethics in public policy education. Research skills are covered through surveys of quantitative analysis skills of MPA students and bridging the gap between methods courses and real research studies. Surveys of information resource management and an active-reactive model of policy evaluation comprise the section on program evaluation and management, while financial core curriculum courses are considered in chapters on in-class budget simulations and fiscal management in the public sector. A computers and communications section focuses on computer literacy and the skills an MPA program should teach, and two contributions analyze comparative public administration. Finally, a concluding section explores the contemporary issues of the use of practitioners in the classroom, experiential learning, and the political science perspective on public administration. This volume will be a useful resource for courses in public administration, public policy, and political science, as well as a welcome addition to public and academic libraries.