Introduction to the symposium on international and comparative public administration education

Abstract

We live in a global society. Our countries may maintain their own borders and bureaucratic structures, but the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the problems that arouse out of it have highlighted the intermingled relationship we have with all parts of the globe (McDonald et al., 2022). The interconnectedness of the globe can even be seen from our own experience as co-editors-in-chief of the Journal of Public Affairs Education. In the early days of the pandemic, printing of the journal was temporarily halted as our publisher had challenges getting access to paper from its distributor in one country, trouble shipping the paper to its printer in another, and finally delivering the hardcopies to the United States. Although this example focuses on JPAE, we are not alone. What happens in one country impacts and effects those around it. But what does this mean for public affairs education? From our standpoint, we believe that it means we should be preparing our students to engage in an international arena. Over the past five years we have sought to use our role as co-editors-in-chief to shape the discussion around what we should teach and how we should teach students in public administration programs. While we have seen the importance of an improved understanding of international and comparative public administration arise, we have not seen the field react as we would hope. Currently, only about a fifth of programs accredited by the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA) have a course offering in this area for their students (Manoharan et al., 2022). We believe that this is nowhere near high enough. After all, if you think that the public administration programs of the United States do not need more focus on international and comparative public administration, you might consider taking a second look at who your students are. A growing demographic within all MPA programs in the United States is that of international student, many of whom intend to return to their countries and become public servants after graduation. Even if the courses had little meaning for students staying in country after graduation, do we not have a responsibility for training those students who will go out afterwards? Our intent with this symposium to start broaching the issue in a more public setting. When planning the symposium, we invited authors to explore all facets and corners of the international and comparative world and its relevancy for public administration. The result is the collection of six papers that are presented to you here. Each article takes its own view of topic, ranging from explorations of what we should teach students and why to the challenges that our international counterparts face with their own teaching and research. We are excited to be able to publish six new pieces of research, but we also believe that these pieces of research are just a beginning. More work is needed, we know this, but we hope that