JOURNAL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS EDUCATION - naspaa

the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh (UWO) in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and at
Indiana University-Northwest (IUN) in Gary, Indiana. Appropriately titled
“Badgers & Hoosiers: An Interstate Collaborative Learning Experience
Connecting MPA Students in Wisconsin and Indiana,” their article provides a
compelling definition of collaboration as an egalitarian concept and presents an
interesting case – one where students and faculty generated a community of
learners, even at a distance, by using digital communications.
In terms of interpretive, reflective, critical, or theoretical exploration, my own
contribution [Margaret Stout], titled “Enhancing Professional Socialization
Through the Metaphor of Tradition,” explores using the metaphor of tradition
to foster specific public-service attitudes in students of public administration,
while simultaneously helping them make sense of the diverse ideations presented
in the field’s theories. According to the article’s typology, professional
socialization may promote a Constitutional view of the administrator as
bureaucrat, a Discretionary view of the administrator as entrepreneur, or a
Collaborative view of the administrator as steward.
In terms of case study, Donna Lind Infeld provides a unique comparative case
via her experiences as a Fulbright Scholar who worked with a Chinese faculty
member, Dr. LI Wenzhao, in the classroom at Renmin University of China in
Beijing. The case considers cross-cultural differences and the related importance
of specific teaching elements in the public administration curriculum. Her
research identifies the following: (1) Chinese students’ English and academic
listening skills, (2) teaching with cases, (3) the “good” teacher, (4) the “good”
student, (5) Chinese conceptions of teaching, (6) questioning, and (7) group
work. Overall, Infeld’s reflections on the quality of academic life in the two
environments are most interesting, and offer a poignant counterpoint to our
field’s predominately American perspectives.
In terms of creative pedagogy, Diane Kimoto, Jenny Frasco, Lorne Mulder,
and Sylvia Juta’s explication of using public service announcements (PSAs) as an
innovative tool in the MPA classroom could not provide a better categorical fit.
The piece, titled “Operation PSA: The Action Learning of Curiosity and
Creativity,” replicated and expanded the YouTube/NASPAA “Speak Truth to
Power” video challenge to create 90-second PSAs for explaining a policy problem
and its potential solution. The resulting pedagogical approach inspires creative,
active learning and collaboration, while building research, problem-solving,
communications, and technology skills that are critical to administrative practice.
Equally creative is Bruce Neubauer & Shelley Stewart’s paper on the use of
Rockwell Arena software for modeling government processes, appropriately
titled “Introduction of Government Process Modeling With Rockwell Arena
Software.” Many professors of organizational theory and public management
struggle with static images of organization charts and work-flow charts to
communicate and analyze the complex and dynamic nature of today’s agencies
and networks. This paper offers an alternative approach to modeling these
structures by using service-oriented architecture software that is intuitive and
relatively easy to operate.
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Journal of Public Affairs Education