Teaching curiosity in public affairs programs

Article
Teaching Public Administration
Teaching curiosity in
2019, Vol. 37(3) 365–375
ª The Author(s) 2019
public affairs programs
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DOI: 10.1177/0144739419858702
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William Hatcher
Augusta University, Georgia, USA
Abstract
Through practicing curiosity by asking questions in the hopes of seeking answers, public
administrators may practice empathy, build knowledge about how the world works, and
in doing so, dispel ignorance in public agencies. By valuing curiosity, or dispelling
ignorance about how the world works, public administrators may help create bureau-
cracies that are effective, democratic, and trustworthy. Thus, curiosity is a concept that
can help public administrators improve the delivery of public services and better serve
their communities. However, public affairs curriculum rarely addresses the topic. This
article discusses the importance of curiosity in public administration, examines how
public affairs programs can teach the concept, and concludes with advice on incorpor-
ating the exercises teaching curiosity in the public administration classroom.
Keywords
Curiosity, empathy, trust, public affairs programs, NASPAA
Public administration is facing a challenge of trust (Kettl, 2017). This challenge is
especially pronounced in the United States (USA), where citizens have expressed sig-
nificantly low levels of trust in the national government. The decline in trust that has
characterized the public’s relationship with the US federal government impedes the
ability of public agencies to administer policy. Therefore, one of the tasks for the field of
public administration today is to help rebuild citizens’ trust in public agencies (Kettl,
2017). This may be accomplished by focusing the field’s coursework on the value of
public service (Goodsell, 2014) and effective public administration. Additionally,
instructors of public administration need to refocus their work and make the case for
their teaching as a public good (Shand and Howell, 2015). The practice of curiosity, or
dispelling ignorance by seeking to ask and answer questions about how the world works
in an objective fashion, has the potential to be a value that helps public administrator
Corresponding author:
William Hatcher, Augusta University, Department of Social Sciences, 2500 Walton Way, Augusta, Georgia
30904, USA.
Email: wihatcher@augusta.edu; Telephone: 706-667-4423

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Teaching Public Administration 37(3)
scholars and practitioners rebuild trust in government and make the case for our work as
a public good. In public administration curricula, the concept of curiosity should be a
central theme. However, public administration scholarship and practice has paid little
attention to the importance of curiosity.
In 1984, writing in Dialogue, Wamsley and colleagues (1984) argued for a scholarly
debate over the process of public input in public administration. The authors mentioned
the importance of curiosity as a guide for this dialogue. Since then, public adminis-
tration, arguably, has taken a more mechanical route and a less curious one by focusing
on efficiency and practices rooted in New Public Management. On the other side of the
scholarly discussion, scholars have focused on public advocacy and “steering rather
than rowing” in administrative theories grounded in New Public Service (Denhardt and
Denhardt, 2015) along with a concern for social equity in the ideas of the New Public
Administration (Frederickson, 1996). But over the past decades, the field has not
furthered this idea of how curiosity can be a guidepost to improve scholarship and
practice (Hatcher, 2019). This essay argues how curiosity and its importance to
administrative decisions should be integrated into the curricula of public affairs pro-
grams. Through such integration, public administration students can observe the
importance of curiosity in helping them develop administrative theory and practice.
Instructors of public administration emphasize many values, such as ethics, leader-
ship, democracy, fairness. But curiosity—or asking questions to objectively explain how
the world works and dispel ignorance—may be an overarching value that links these
values together. Curiosity, defined by one commenter as “a need, thirst, or desire for
knowledge,” can help push agencies toward effective action (Armajani, 2007). There-
fore, the argument here is that curiosity can serve as a bridge to help link theory to the
nurturing of effective, democratic, and trustworthy public administration.
In what follows, the essay makes the case that curiosity should be a fundamental part
of public administration education. The essay begins by exploring concepts that can
inform a philosophy of administrative curiosity that encourages empathy and wisdom in
administration and discourages what has come to be known as administrative evil. The
essay concludes by discussing ways in which instructors can teach curiosity in public
administration classrooms.
Defining curiosity and the concept’s relationship to public
administration
Public administrators are constantly making decisions. Ideally, they learn during their
education and training to seek evidence and advice when doing so. Deep knowledge of
public affairs, however, requires curiosity, just like any other field. Inan (2013) has argued
that curiosity is a crucial aspect of seeking and acquiring knowledge; it is about realizing that
one is ignorant of how the world works and seeking information to dispel that ignorance.
Opdal (2001) argued similarly that curiosity is a “motive” (p. 342), one that drives indi-
viduals to learn more about the world around them. From this perspective, curiosity can be
thought of as a motivation to replace ignorance about the world with knowledge.

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Hatcher
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In somewhat more practical terms, Phillips (2014) discussed the importance of
designing physical spaces to encourage curiosity. Also, Phillips, Evans, and Muirhead
(2015) have argued that curiosity about an individual’s place in the world positively
affects her wellbeing, making for a healthier, better-adjusted individual. Curiosity is,
therefore, an important aspect of empathy and caring; thus it is possible to distinguish
empathetic and relational curiosity (Phillips, 2016). Phillips (2015) has further deduced
from the scholarly literature three reasons to “talk about curiosity” (pp. 14–15): it pro-
duces positive effects, helps us improve lives, and has intrinsic value.
Thus, curiosity involves understanding how the world works and fighting ignorance.
It encourages discussion and learning about others, promotes a sense of community and
mutual concern, and even contributes to wellbeing. Curious public administrators, by
inquiring and learning about the world and other people, are inclined to be effective and
unbiased in carrying out their daily tasks.
Public administration theory has prescribed many...