Cases and Controversies: How Novitiates Are Trained to Be Masters of the Public Policy Universe

Abstract

Public policy schools were established 30 years ago to provide analytic and management skills to aspiring policy professionals. A centerpiece of policy management training has been the action-centered teaching case, modeled after the cases long used in business schools. Though other aspects of public management teaching and research have been vigorously debated, little attention has been paid to the content of teaching cases.Taking these texts as a central element in policy student socialization, the authors ask what implicit lessons they convey. A close reading of 10 best-selling cases from the Kennedy School of Government finds the policy world to be the domain of high-level, lone protagonists beset by hostile political forces; collaborative problem-solving is rare, street-level actors insignificant, and historical, social, and institutional contexts of minimal importance. The article discusses the implications of this construction and raises questions about its appropriateness for the training of future public servants. © 2001 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.

Erroneous Learning from the West? A Narrative Analysis of Chinese MBA Cases Published in 1992, 1999 and 2003

“…The case protagonists are the characters with whom readers most readily identify and whose roles are adopted by students during class discussion (Chetkovich/Kirp 2001). The choice of case protagonists is important because it is through this that organizational "reality" is presented in teaching cases.…”

“…Chetkovich and Kirp (2001) studied the ten best-selling public policy cases in the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. They found that those tended to feature high-level, lone protagonists beset by hostile political forces.…”

“…Many scholars are concerned that the "reality" depicted in the MBA/MPA cases might be distorted. Not only what students learn from cases analyses is insufficient for "acting" as a manager, but could be misleading and even harmful (Chetkovich/Kirp 2001, Swiercz/ross 2003. Liang and Wang (2004) concluded that "there exists a major gap between the stated purpose of the case method of 'bringing a chunk of reality' into the classroom and what teaching cases actually depict and convey" (p. 410).…”

Moving towards reflexive use of teaching cases

“…This is unsurprising given that for many management teachers and students the primary purpose of a teaching case is to provide the opportunity to identify with management and to make a managerial decision (Chetkovich and Kirp, 2001;Lundberg et al, 2001;Liang and Wang, 2004).…”

A fresh look at a policy sciences methodology: collaborative modeling for more effective policy

“…In his seminal piece on the policy sciences, Lasswell (1951) built on Charles Merriam's work, which emphasized ''breaking down barriers that separate scholars from one another, and of leveling-up methodological competence everywhere.'' Early policy sciences practitioners were ''intellectual border-crossers'' (Chetkovich and Kirp 2001), and their vision was for policy to combine diverse disciplines in a quest to find better responses to policy issues with a strongly democratic focus. Lasswell (1951) recognized that context is key and that our most powerful and creative results arise when we ''unify quantitative and nonquantitative observations and point the way to new empirical, theoretical, and policy activities.''…”