This article examines the profiles of academics participating in undergraduate programs in public administration education in Chile, focusing on how classic tensions in the field—between teaching and research, theory and practice, and disciplinary identity and interdisciplinarity—manifest empirically. Drawing on an original dataset of 168 academics from 19 universities, the study systematizes educational backgrounds, scientific productivity, and participation in competitive research. Findings show limited research engagement overall: fewer than one quarter publish on disciplinary public administration topics, most faculties lack specialized PA training, and externally funded projects are infrequent and concentrated in a small number of institutions. The analysis identifies three faculty profiles—disciplinary, interdisciplinary and others (academics without any publications)—and shows that their distribution varies sharply by institutional type. Non-traditional universities are dominated by professors without publications (72%) and exhibit a very low share of disciplinary researchers (8%), whereas traditional universities show a more balanced profile mix and concentrate most disciplinary researchers (90%) and research awards. These patterns suggest that rapid program expansion has outpaced disciplinary consolidation, reinforcing institutional stratification and limiting the system-wide capacity to integrate teaching, research, and professional identity.
The rapid integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into higher education is transforming how decision-making is taught, particularly in fields such as public administration, where complexity, uncertainty, and accountability are central. This study examines how students engage with AI-supported decision-making by comparing human and AI-generated approaches in two educational contexts: public management and business management. Using an experimental classroom design, students were asked to solve a structured decision-making task, apply a selected method, and compare their solutions with recommendations generated by ChatGPT. The study analyzes differences in decision-making methods, outcome alignment, and student satisfaction, complemented by qualitative reflections. The findings reveal significant differences between human and AI approaches to decision-making, while outcome alignment varies independently of methodological similarity. Student satisfaction is strongly associated with agreement between human and AI decisions, suggesting the presence of confirmation effects. Differences between public and business management students are more pronounced in qualitative reflections, particularly regarding the importance of contextual, ethical, and emotional considerations. The results highlight the importance of critically engaging with AI in decision-making education. Rather than replacing human reasoning, AI tools can support reflective learning by enabling comparison, evaluation, and deeper understanding of decision processes. The study contributes to emerging research on AI in public administration education by linking empirical findings to theoretical perspectives on bounded rationality and algorithmic decision-making.
Social enterprises (SEs) combine social and economic goals, requiring a distinct social transformational leadership (STL) style characterized by moral clarity, inspiration, motivation, innovation, and personal growth. This leadership promotes social value and financial stability. Studies reveal SE leaders face a leadership skills gap due to limited training in public administration (MPA) and nonprofit management (MNM) programs. An online faculty survey found that although both programs include some STL competencies, SE-specific STL is underemphasized, particularly in MPA programs. Enhancing curricula can better prepare future leaders.
Public administration has long been marked by a recurring debate over identity, legitimacy, and intellectual coherence. This study argues that such disciplinary tensions are reflected in how students understand their field and prepare for employment, an urgent question in China, where competition for civil service positions has intensified to 97:1 for 38,100 positions in the 2026 recruitment cycle. Using survey data from 544 undergraduate students across seven universities in the Pearl River Delta, the study examines relationships among professional identity, learning self-efficacy, and core competencies. Findings reveal moderate professional identity, with employment identity scoring the lowest (2.98/5). A clear disparity exists between general (3.42) and professional learning self-efficacy (3.00), suggesting that students lack confidence in their discipline-specific knowledge. Value-based competencies (3.72) significantly exceed tool-based competencies (3.31), indicating that programs successfully transmit public service values but lag in developing practical skills. No significant competency differences emerged between students from elite 211 Project universities and those from independent colleges. Most importantly, learning self-efficacy mediated 54.1% of the relationship between professional identity and core competencies. The study contributes to the literature by linking macro-level disciplinary debates to micro-level student outcomes and identifying self-efficacy as a key mechanism in competency formation and employment readiness.
Through continuous training, top civil servants acquire up-to-date skills, strategies, and insights necessary for informed decision-making and innovative leadership. However, existing literature, particularly in developing countries, pays limited attention to the training of top civil servants. Using the analytical framework developed by Van Wart and Hondeghem, this study examines how top civil servants in Bangladesh are trained using government policy documents, training institute records, and semi-structured interviews with training providers. The findings show that, although Bangladesh lacks a distinct leadership model, top civil servants are expected to demonstrate transformational leadership behaviors. They are predominantly generalist careerists who undergo grade-specific training throughout their careers, both domestically and abroad. The Bangladesh Public Administration Training Centre (BPATC) delivers core and short-term programs aimed at developing leadership skills for policy processes. This study contributes to the limited literature on top civil servant training in developing countries and identifies key limitations in current training programs to guide the design of more effective programs.
With artificial intelligence (AI) integration continually increasing in public service, there is growing pressure on public administration instructors to learn more about how the technology works and how to apply it in the classroom. While current literature examines how instructors use it in their courses, less is known about how they pursue AI literacy. The reflection addresses the following question: Through which channels, do instructors in NASPAA-accredited public affairs programs seek to learn about AI for teaching? Drawing on an original survey distributed by NASPAA with 92 respondents, the authors provide an exploratory analysis of how instructors are learning about AI. Findings indicate that instructor engagement in AI learning is widespread and consistent across both gender and rank, with most respondents participating in at least one training opportunity, particularly through university teaching and learning centers, while conferences and professional associations are used less frequently. Given the exploratory nature of this study combined with its smaller size, the authors do not make sweeping assessments, but rather a contribution to the ongoing conversation of AI knowledge acquisition by public affairs instructors. The study highlights that the public administration field would benefit from more information, specifically via interviews, to gain a deeper understanding of how AI literacy is developed among public affairs instructors across the world.
Communities of Practice (CoPs) have emerged as key collaborative environments for professional development and knowledge generation across diverse organisational contexts. This qualitative study examines how CoPs function by identifying patterns in leadership, interpersonal relationships, conflict management, the outputs they produce, and their institutional impact. An interpretive qualitative research design was employed, using six focus groups as the primary data collection method. Participants’ testimonies were analysed thematically, allowing the identification of factors that facilitate or hinder the success of CoPs. The results indicate that distributed leadership promotes autonomy and shared learning, while interpersonal relationships enhance group cohesion. Effective conflict management fosters collective resilience, and the outputs suggest high potential for impact, although with limitations in institutional recognition. The study concludes that CoPs represent an effective strategy for organisational innovation and collaboration, highlighting the need for institutional support to ensure the sustainability and recognition of their contributions.
Community-based service-learning projects have demonstrated their effectiveness in helping students understand concepts in public service education through hands-on, experiential activities; however, little is known about the implementation of service-learning pedagogy in rural settings and its implications for public administration. This article employs a multiple case study approach to examine the application of service-learning graduate courses in public administration and public health. We observe two projects conducted in rural regions of the southeastern United States by analyzing data from student evaluations and reflections, as well as feedback from community partners. Findings indicated service-learning can help students develop professional skills that are directly applicable to real-world scenarios, deepen their understanding of community challenges in rural settings, and highlight the impact of their work on rural communities. Community partners in rural areas can benefit from increased access to student-driven services for organizations navigating resource constraints. We provide recommendations for effectively implementing service-learning projects in rural regions worldwide. The study contributes to the literature by employing an interdisciplinary public service lens to highlight the challenges and opportunities present for public administration students and community partners in rural areas and to explore how service-learning helps students acquire competencies in resource-constrained settings.
The rise of big data has introduced a data-driven paradigm that enables us to address complex problems once considered unsolvable. Its transformative impact is evident across all sectors of society, including the public sector. This shift raises a critical question: how can public administration education adapt to prepare students for a rapidly evolving job market shaped by big data? As education remains fundamental to professional success, developing effective strategies to equip future public administrators is essential. We propose three pedagogical approaches for integrating big data into public administration curriculum: big data as tools, big data as foundation, and big data as practices. Besides, we also explore other challenges and opportunities brought by big data to public administration teaching.
Virtual reality (VR) offers immersive, interactive environments for experience-based learning, yet its role in public administration (PA) education is understudied. We analysed data from a project that developed and tested three VR scenarios with students in information technology, PA, and media informatics. Overall, VR was rated more positively than a text-based e-learning module, largely because it strengthened learners' focus and satisfaction. PA students reported lower prior digital experience and weaker initial interest, and VR did not consistently increase topic interest among initially disengaged learners. Voluntary uptake of VR stations and apps also remained low. The findings suggest that VR for PA requires practice-relevant instructional design, improved accessibility (including home-compatible options), and tighter curricular integration. Future research should assess long-term learning effects and strategies to foster sustained adoption.
As global challenges-including public health emergencies, racial and ethnic diversity, political division, and persistent economic inequalities-continue to strain communities, the need for public administration leaders equipped with robust skills, competency-based knowledge, and empathy has become increasingly urgent. This paper applies a deep learning approach to strengthen reflection and professional development among students in public service programs. Using deep learning for reflective leadership practice as our guiding framework, we identify five strategies from the literature and illustrate their application in a graduate leadership course. Student feedback indicates meaningful gains in deep learning, particularly through structured reflective assignments. We conclude by outlining future research directions for advancing deep learning in public administration.
The existence of MBA cultures is well established; with such cultures often being posited as a career enhancing feature of such programmes. However, does the MBA's sister qualification for the public sector, the MPA, hold the same cachet, or should it? After all, it is incumbent on national governments to recruit, develop and retain its brightest and its best. The aim of this article is to analyse the cultural attractiveness of MPA programmes when compared to the MBA and what MPA programme designers can do to maximise the potential in terms of content and the 'added value' that a MPA should bring. The authors bring over 30 years' experience of teaching on both MBA and MPA programmes to base their analysis on. The article considers the following. First, while there is no 'right way' to develop public administrators there may be an opportunity to learn from successful MBA programmes in relation to course cohesion and despite the considerable differences in curricula. Rhodes (2016) refers to the craft skills of the senior public administrator; skills that are very difficult to 'teach'. This difficulty notwithstanding, concepts such as leadership and strategy are assessed across programmes. Other factors such as the provider, accreditation and opportunities for professional development are also assessed. The article develops the basis for a research design to evaluate the cultural value of such programmes. If MBA programmes are marked by rituals and a rejection of academic theory (Orta, 2019), does the same hold true for the MPA participant and what can MPA providers learn from this?.
Political polarization affects the daily work of public administrators. Despite its global prevalence, the public administration teaching literature has given little attention to how students can be prepared to work in polarized environments. We describe how we teach key components of polarization including theories of political polarization, the role of narratives in deepening polarization, the impact of social media, and the influence of cognitive biases on the power of political narratives. Next, we introduce four tools designed to help students confront polarization in their professional roles followed by a class-tested case study that demonstrates how students can apply course concepts in practice. We conclude with twelve key lessons learned from teaching the course.
Understanding how policy decisions are made is a vital skill for students and practitioners in public administration. Yet policymaking remains a complex, dynamic, and often opaque process-where ideas compete, interests clash, and change is hard-won. This special issue examines how digital serious games can teach policymaking in a manner that is both theoretically grounded and experientially rich. This introductory article addresses the unique challenges of teaching policymaking-a subject that lies at the intersection of the technical and procedural aspects of public administration and the conceptual focus of policy process theories. Teaching policymaking carries both practical and democratic value. It helps students develop strategic agency by learning how actors frame problems, build coalitions, overcome opposition, and design pathways to policy reform. At the same time, it fosters democratic competence by encouraging students to recognise the pluralistic nature of public decisions, understand power asymmetries, and resist simplistic or populist narratives. The article also argues that addressing complex policy problems requires not only sound evidence but also knowledge of policymaking, i.e. a deep understanding of how evidence is framed, contested, and mobilised within the policy process. The introductory article discusses how serious games can effectively integrate these dimensions into the classroom. By simulating real-world dynamics, games allow students to experience policymaking first-hand. This experiential approach fosters critical thinking, soft skills, and a realistic understanding of the complexity of policy decisions. The articles in this special issue expand on these themes, presenting insights from the use of the P-CUBE digital game across diverse policy fields, including social inclusion, scientific decision-making, and urban policy, and offering practical guidance on game design, classroom strategies, and learning outcomes.
The rapid global expansion of Public Administration (PA) education has raised pressing questions about whether PA curricula are converging towards uniformity or adapting to distinct regional contexts—a tension amplified by calls to foreground Global South perspectives and decolonise the field. This study is among the first to conduct a comparative analysis of PA programmes in top-ranked policy schools across the Global North and South. Using Quantitative Text Comparative Analysis (QCTA), we identify the prevalence of a canonised Western-centric curriculum, where traditional, technical, and governance-focused elements are embedded to a similar degree across geographies and institutions. However, while PA curricula in the Global South primarily emulate the technical and instrumental aspects of their Northern counterparts, reinforcing ‘coloniality of knowledge’, Global North programmes exhibit greater thematic diversity. These findings point to a widening geographical divergence in PA education, as universities increasingly tailor their curricula to reflect institutional contexts and historical legacies—yet still within a dominant Western-centric framework. Finally, we argue for a more diverse and contextually grounded approach to PA education, one that moves beyond Western-centric uniformity towards a more pluralistic curricular landscape.
This article reflects on how tools such as the Outcomes Star can support public servants to take a learning-oriented, relational approach, filling the gap left by Public Administration (PA) education not keeping up with the challenges facing public servants today. We describe the distinctive design features of the Outcomes Star suite of tools and draw on empirical evidence, alongside our experience supporting Outcomes Star users, to illustrate how these features allow it to act as a pedagogical tool for service users, practitioners, managers and commissioners. Barriers to using tools like the Outcomes Star to benefit service delivery are framed in the context of misplaced ideas borrowed from other fields that run counter to aspirations for relational, responsive, joined up service delivery. The case is made that the PA needs to root its theoretical foundations in the human sciences alongside political studies and management science. We end with recommendations for greater involvement from human science disciplines in PA teaching, incorporating the Outcomes Star into PA teaching, and further research into the role of such tools in public service pedagogy.
The paper proposes that public sector organisations should explore further opportunities to use an experiential learning approach to develop “helpers” skills in having effective initial conversations with residents with complex needs. In 2021 an experiential learning training originally entitled “Core Conversations” was developed as part of a project with London Borough of Newham. The training (now renamed “Relational Conversations”) has since been delivered to 565 people from 213 organisations, across the UK – as part of the training the “helpers” attending identified principles for effective initial conversations with residents with complex needs, drawing on techniques of relational practice. These principles have been collected and combined. The training has been independently evaluated twice. The results of these evaluations presented demonstrate that helpers were able to apply their learning and improve their performance. As a result, they were able to provide more effective support to people with complex needs.
There is a rich history of examining the functions and activities of public administration through the lens of complexity theory. Arguments for training and educating public administrators in this discipline are both longstanding and highly relevant in the modern-day context. This paper seeks to add to the existing literature which explores educational methods for teaching complexity sciences to public administrators through a novel analysis that integrates two different psychological domains - applied cognitive psychology and adult developmental psychology. Introducing the notion of thought architecture, this analysis will first acknowledge that public administrators are likely novices in complexity, due to their limited exposure to necessary declarative and conceptual knowledge and their stage of adult development. Second, this analysis will show that features of a complex system exist in tension with instructional methods typically associated with helping novices acquire knowledge or advance in their stage of adult development. In light of this finding, appropriate and useful instructional strategies drawn from these two psychological domains that help to reconcile this tension will be discussed.
