Understanding the case method: Teaching public administration case by case
| Author | Manfred Röber,Eckhard Schröter |
| Published date | 01 July 2022 |
| Date | 01 July 2022 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/01447394211051883 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Teaching Public Administration
2022, Vol. 40(2) 258–275
© The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/01447394211051883
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Understanding the case
method: Teaching public
administration case by case
Eckhard Schr ¨
oter
Professor of Public Administration, German University of the Police, Zum Roten Berge, Münster, Germany
Manfred R ¨
ober
Professor (Emeritus) of Public Management, University of Leipzig, Universit¨
atsstr. 16, 04109 Leipzig, Germany
Abstract
Case studies provide helpful teaching tools to capture the complexity of administrative
problems from an action-oriented perspective.With increasingly complex policyproblems
at hand, moreinterdisciplinary, interactive,and discursive approachesto teaching are also in
demand. However, the case method offers a broad variety of options for teaching pro-
grams, rangingfrom short case illustrations or vignettesto full-length case studies.Attached
to various types of case materials are different didactic approaches that pursue different
pedagogiclogics and are likely to make differentcontributions to in-classroomteaching. The
case method inteaching public administration,however, comes at a cost and requiresextra
capacity, highertime budgets as well as new qualifications androles of teachers plus a good
fit of student(self)-selection and teachingobjectives. If meaningfullyutilized, it enhances our
capacity to prepare (future) executives for complex environments.
Keywords
case studies, teaching, public administration, executive training, midcareer programs
Introduction: The case method in the context of public sector
education and training
The case method is widely used in college teaching across many departments and
disciplines—and even more widely talked about in academic and professional circles as
Corresponding author:
Eckhard Schr¨
oter Professor of Public Administration, German University of the Police, Zum Roten Berge 18-
24, 48165 Münster, Germany.
Email: eckhard.schroeter@dhpol.de
an important approach in higher education. In part, however, this popularity owes much to
the fact that case teaching is often only vaguely defined, being used in different settings for
different purposes. For the sake of clarification and a more systematic treatment of this
teaching method, this article sets out to analyze cases and their use in the classroom by
way of a typology of case material and corresponding learning goals. In doing so, it
considers the case method with a wide angle, so as to encompass both its roots in teaching
philosophies and didactic approaches and its account of assets and liabilities.
Case studies represent an established approach in research and teaching across a wide
range of academic disciplines. In social science research, the merits of the case study
approach are particularly appreciated by advocates of qualitative methods who value their
high degree of internal validity and the close link between empirical data and their context,
including institu tions and actors (Yin, 2018). In social science teaching, particularly in the
domain of managementtraining (Andersen and Schiano,2014;Ellet, 2007;Jennings,1996,
1997;Lundbergand Winn, 2005;Lundberg et al., 2001), the case method—especially at the
Harvard Business School that adopted this technique from law schools (Christensen,
1989)—has been highlighted and praised for a long time for their problem-oriented nature
and interactive potential in the classroom (Andrews, 1953;Barnes et al., 1994;Erskine
et al., 2003;Hunt, 1951;Naumes and Naumes, 2012;Penn et al., 2016;Stein, 1952). This
potential is also brought to bear in the disciplines that constitute the public management,
public administration and public policy community (see for example Borins, 1990;
Clemons and McBeth, 2009;Foster et al., 2010;Hatcher et al., 2018;Lynn, 1999).
Still, the full capacity and variety of applications of the case method has not yet been
aptly appreciated in the broad range of education and training programs at undergraduate
and graduate levels in our fields of instruction. In fact, the full range of different types of
case material (ranging from short case illustrations or vignettes to full-length case studies)
has to be realized in order to assess their specific merits in the classroom. Attached to
various types of case materials are different didactic approaches that pursue different
pedagogic logics and are likely to make different contributions to in-classroom teaching
(Foster et al., 2010). Consequently, this article offers a more systematic treatment of what
different purposes the case method as a didactic tool can be used for in different settings of
public sector education and training.
In what follows, we, first, set the case method in the context of learning theories and
teaching philosophies as an inductive approach to knowledge transfer and acquisition.
Against this background, we will discuss specific assets and liabilities that are typically
associated with this form of instruction. Our argument is eventually geared to identify
different types of cases and match them with different types of approaches to case
teaching in order to probe more systematically into the question of how cases can be
utilized for different learning outcomes in the classroom.
Teaching philosophies and pedagogy: putting the case teaching
approach in context
The case for case teaching can serve as an antithesis to the orthodoxy of lecturer-centered
formal instruction in the classroom. It flows from this that most controversies involving
Schr¨
oter and R¨
ober 259
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