Making role-playing real

Abstract

Recent research in public administration on governance, networks, and deliberative democracy, has highlighted the need to develop a skill set in graduates of Public Administration programs that prepares them for the interpersonal and relational challenges of the policy process. The skills needed to manage in increasingly complex and networked policy arenas include: convening and activating participants, group facilitation methods, and negotiation skills among groups with divergent interests. This article explores the use of role playing to develop these skills, and then reports on a recent attempt to incorporate role play into a graduate course in strategic management of public organizations. It was found that the simulation was not immediately salient as students did not fully develop their roles. Several steps were taken to ameliorate this issue and provide insights about how to improve the use of simulations for teaching public administration students.Recent research in public administration has highlighted the need to develop a skill set in graduates of Public Administration programs that prepares them for the interpersonal and relational challenges of the policy process. These insights stem from bourgeoning research on governance, networks, and deliberative democracy. Some of the skills needed to manage in complex and networked policy arenas include: convening and activating participants, group facilitation methods, and negotiation skills among groups with divergent interests. One means for developing these skills is the use of simulations, or more specifically issue-based role playing. This article explores and describes the use of issue-based role playing in a course on strategic public management, an elective in Kansas State University's Master in Public Administration program. I highlight one of

When public administration education switches online: Student perceptions during COVID-19

“…Public administration programmes today are known for making concerted efforts to combine theory and practice in a reflective and practical way (Van der Meer and Marks, 2018) by consistently drawing links with the ‘real world’ (Bushouse et al, 2011). This is reflected in the curriculum of public administration programmes which emphasise the theory-practice nexus (Meltzer, 2013), in the teaching pedagogies adopted (Neely et al, 2018) and in the skillsets that are sought to be cultivated amongst the students (Schafer, 2016; Van der Meer and Marks, 2018). Taken together, this results in a teaching environment in which interaction plays a key role (White, 2000) in promoting self-learning and enriching the classroom by drawing on the experiences of the students in conjunction with those of the instructor (Savard et al, 2020).…”

“…The last of these intentions is especially pertinent as many students commence graduate-level programmes in public administration schools with prior work experience, particularly in the case of mid-career programmes, and in turn are expected to return or switch to a career in policy work (Van der Meer and Marks, 2013). Thus, the skillset and training that public administration schools seek to impart to students are aimed at equipping them to function more effectively in their professional practice (Schafer, 2016; Van der Meer and Marks, 2018). In addition, a key role—and what some even consider a responsibility of public administration education—is to instil and promote public service value (Rubaii et al, 2019) so as to deal with the ‘wicked' policy problems of today and prevent future crises and atrocities.…”

Teaching public budgeting in the age of austerity using simulations

“…Simulations have been defined as "concentrated learning exercises specifically designed to represent important real life activities by providing the learners with the essence or essential elements of the real situation without the hazards, costs or time constraints" (Wittich and Schuller, 1973: 578). They are well suited to the social sciences (Queen, 1984)-including political science, public policy, and public administration-and have become the subject of much pedagogical research within these disciplines (Chetkovich and Henderson, 2014;Goodman, 2008;McCarthy and Anderson, 2000;Schafer, 2016). Simulations increase student motivation to learn, enhance information retention, and can be used to learn both content and process (Auerbach, 2013;Dekkers and Donatti, 1981;Smith and Boyer, 1996) Though role-playing tends to be more effective, both role-playing and role-thinking serve important functions.…”

“…In this article, I examine methods for incorporating budgeting role-thinking (Green and Armstrong, 2011) and role-playing in the classroom (Schafer, 2016). Specifically, I evaluate the implementation of two computer-based budget simulations in introductory courses in public administration at a public university.…”

Editors’ notes

“…Case‐centered teaching and learning supports the development of the knowledge, skills and competencies required for the professional practice of evaluation in varied and complex settings. Evaluators‐in‐training need to develop skills related to reading people and situations, exercising influence, negotiating, and compromising; such skills can best be acquired through interactive methods such as case‐centered teaching and learning (Brock & Alford, 2015; Gatti Schafer, 2016). The purpose of this issue, therefore, is to further our understanding of how case‐centered teaching and learning can support the development of evaluation knowledge and skills.…”