Reflecting on over 100 years of public administration education
| Published date | 01 March 2022 |
| Author | Catherine Farrell,William Hatcher,John Diamond |
| Date | 01 March 2022 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12808 |
SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE
Reflecting on over 100 years of public
administration education
Catherine Farrell
1
| William Hatcher
2
| John Diamond
3
1
Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University,
Cardiff, Wales, UK
2
Department of Social Sciences, Augusta
University, Augusta, Georgia, USA
3
Institute for Public Policy and Professional
Practice, Edge Hill University, Ormskirk,
England
Correspondence
William Hatcher, Department of Social
Sciences, Augusta University, 2500 Walton
Way, Allgood Hall N312, Augusta, GA 30904,
USA.
Email: wihatcher@augusta.edu
Abstract
Public administration education has an interesting history
rooted in numerous scholarly disciplines, such as sociology,
political science, economics, and engineering. The article
reflects on the last 100 years of scholarship on public
administration education, starting with an article on the
topic in the first issue of Public Administration in 1923. We
provide a concise review focused on the development of
public administration education over this time. Next, we dis-
cuss scholarship in top journals on public administration
education, Journal of Public Affairs Education and Teaching
Public Administration. We use Denhardt's (2001) big ques-
tions in public administration education as a framework to
examine this scholarship. We conclude by discussing the
future of public administration education and advocating a
community-based approach to pedagogy practice and
research in the field.
1|INTRODUCTION
Public administration is a field of practice as old as civilization, though it took until the late 1800s for a scholarly dis-
cipline to develop. Originally, this scholarly discipline was found in numerous areas, such as political science, sociol-
ogy, management, and even engineering (Raadschelders 1999; Waldo 1965). Today, there is a strong call to consider
public administration as a separate and independent academic discipline and field of inquiry (Box 2008;
DiStefano 2019; Sarker 2019). The evolution of public administration as a field of inquiry is an article, or book, by
itself. In this paper, we narrow the focus by examining the connective tissue that link public administration concepts
and practices through multiple academic fields over the years, and this connection is the topic of public administra-
tion education.
Since the emergence of public administration as a field of scholarship and practice, there has been a strong
emphasis on linking research with practice through education and training. For instance, the New York Bureau of
Received: 22 October 2021 Revised: 5 November 2021 Accepted: 5 November 2021
DOI: 10.1111/padm.12808
116 © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Public Admin. 2022;100:116–128.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/padm
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