From the Editor
The Classroom of the Future
David Schultz
Co-editor
I misspent much of my youth watching car­
toons. The Jetsons were a favorite, depicting a
futuristic world of space travel, robot maids,
and exotic technology. The Jetsons often made
me won­der what schools and learning would be
like in the future. Would we still have real
teachers or robots, how would computers be
used, and what other changes might schools of
the future bring? In so many ways, that future
is revealing itself now, and many of us wonder
if the classroom of the future is now.
New technologies enable possibilities. But the
classroom of the future is not simply about new
technologies. Yes, the Internet, social med­
ia,
and a host of other gee-whiz toys certainly are
offering the potential for new ways of teach­ing and of seeing what needs to be taught.
Technological literacy, such as teaching future
administrators the art of using Twitter to
communicate, is important. But the classroom
of the future is more than that. It is also about
philosophies of teaching, and the different
ways to instruct a new generation of students
who are facing new challenges that previous
generations never had to address.
There may be varieties of knowledge as well
as different ways to learn. The classroom of
the future is about exploring both. We must
reject the notion that there is a one-size-fits-all
pattern to how people learn, and we must reject
that idea just as strongly when it comes to how
JPAE 21 (1), 5–8
we teach. The classroom of the future is really
about the many classrooms of the future. It is
about recognizing that we need to experiment
constantly, to shake things up, to innovate and
explore. Standards are important, but we can­
not let them stifle creativity. This is really what
the classrooms of the future are about—
enabling creativity.
Technology makes creativity possible. But so
does a simple lecture, or even chalk on the
board. We should not become fixated on the
belief that we are creative only when we are
using the latest technologies, or that tech­nology is already delivering the classroom of
the future. Moreover, we should not forget that
learning still requires some basics that are
constants. Teachers still need to be qualified to
teach, they need to research, and they need
time to prepare engaging lesson plans and
assignments. Students still need to study, to
read and write, and simply take time to think.
Standards do not guarantee any of this, nor
does the introduction of new technologies in
the classroom. Perhaps the single best reform
we can introduce into public affairs programs is
the enabling of a culture of excellence and
creativity. It is encouraging experimentation or
the novel not simply for their sake, but with the
aim of finding betters ways to teach and learn.
That is what the articles in this current issue of
JPAE do.
Journal of Public Affairs Education5
D. Schultz
Incoming NASPAA President J. Edward Kel­
lough’s inaugural speech commences Volume
21 of JPAE. The speech provides a cogent and
compelling history of NASPAA’s role in public
affairs education, emphasizing especially the
role of the organization in main­taining quality
stand­
ards through accreditation. Kellough’s
essay defines his agenda for the coming year
that will look to address the global challenges in
standards, effectively talking about what the
classroom of the future will look like across
the world.
In “I Flipped My Classroom: One Teacher’s
Quest to Remain Relevant,” John Gunyou
offers a personal narrative in his odyssey to
explore new teaching techniques, especially in
the face of changing learning technologies.
Here he describes his experiment with the
flipped classroom and his finding that it was
not only beneficial for student engagement and
mastery of material, but had a transformative
impact on him personally. This is a terrific
article by a practitioner turned teacher.
Many of the articles published in JPAE exam­
ine how the changing workplace or technology
affects the content of public affairs curricula.
Yet we do not often think about how changing
social values or mores might also affect the
classroom of the future. In “Values, Com­
petencies, and Public Sector Training: The
Value Base of Administrative Modernization,”
Eckhard Schröter and Manfred Röber examine
this topic. Using Germany as an example, the
authors explore how culture and modernization
drive role changes for public administrators as
well for organizations. This article emphasizes
the need for public affairs teachers to remember
that what we teach must be understood within
a larger context of societal expectations
and understandings.
Max Weber is famous for describing the work
of public administrators as a vocation, replete
with an ethos or a set of values that distinguish
its outlook. This means that part of what a
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Journal of Public Affairs Education
public affairs education should include is
instruction or socialization in these values—
coming to internalize the values of public
service, including commitments to the public
good. But where and how does such instruction
fit into a curriculum? Allison H. Turner’s
article, “Instilling Public Service Values and
Professionalism
Through
Information
Literacy,” explores the link between public
service values professionalism in the public
sector and information literacy. She highlights
a Communications for Public Administrators
course in the Master of Public Administration
(MPA) program at West Chester University
(WCU) and describes how the class was taught,
its goals, and its learning outcomes.
Social change and service learning are central
learning objectives or avenues for many public
affairs programs. Our students really want to
make the world a better place and want to do it
immediately, often in internships or servicelearning programs where they gain valuable
experiences. Grace Bahng’s case study in “Using
Community Partnerships to Create Critical
Service Learning: The Case of Mar Vista
Gardens” provides valuable information on
how to construct good service-learning
programs that are beneficial to students,
schools, and community partners and can
produce results that in some small way make
the world better. This is simply a nicely written
story of a successful adventure.
According to Tyler P. Reinagel and John
David Gerlach, 77% of NASPAA-accredited
programs require some type of internship. But
what exactly are these internship programs to
do pedagogically, or how do they fit within a
public affairs curriculum? In “Internships as
Academic Exercise: An Assessment of MPA
Curriculum Models,” Reinagel and Gerlach
survey NASPAA schools, constructing a variety
of models describing what MPA programs are
doing with their internships. Readers will
find interesting variations on how internships
are used. The authors also explore some vexing
Classroom of the Future
problems, such as the role of compensation and
academic credit in constructing these learn­ing opportunities.
Our students have career preferences, and
public affairs programs have academic foci
and employment tracks. Hopefully, the two
match; but they may not. As a new generation
of students enters public affairs programs, one
question to ask is what are their employment
preferences, especially in terms of levels of
government? Roger Rose’s “Student Preferences
for Federal, State, and Local Government
Careers: National Opportunities and Local
Service” draws upon a survey at one school to
examine the changing employment interests
of students. His survey reveals fascinating,
shifting patterns and provides a model for how
other schools might consider exploring what
their students want as well as how it could
affect their curricula and career counseling.
If there is one theme that JPAE has sounded
more than others, it is that faculty should be
willing to experiment with different teaching
and instructional approaches. Experiment and
innovation are the gateway to improving our
teaching and our students’ learning. Karl
Nollenberger takes up and investigates this
innovation in “Comparing Alternative Teach­
ing Modes in a Master’s Program: Student
Preferences and Perceptions.” He focuses on
the use of online learning programs, seeking to
understand how adult learners view these
programs and what they like and dislike in
them. Not only are his results useful to other
programs, but his article is a good example of
how one program collected feedback from its
users and then used it to learn from them.
In the last decade or so, the number of doctoral
programs in public affairs and administration
has grown. At the same time, colleges and
universities have experienced budget cuts and
reductions in full-time faculty. These twin
trends raise questions, such as what are the
employment opportunities for our students
with doctorates? This is the subject of
“Exploring the Demand for PhDs in Public
Affairs and Administration,” by Dianne Rahm,
Vicki Brittain, Christopher Brown, Charles
Garofalo, Nandhini Rangarajan, Patricia Shi­
elds, and Hyun Jung Yun. The article draws
upon three surveys and then projects into the
future, finding insufficient academic demand
for our doctoral students. The authors then
look to what other employment opportunities
are available to students. This is a significant
piece for all NASPAA programs to contemplate
as they think about creating, expanding, or
even closing doctoral programs.
Finally, Carol Jean Becker reviews the book
Public Budgeting Systems, by R. D. Lee, R. W.
Johnson, and P. Joyce. Becker declares that this
book is not just about public budgeting, but
provides an overview of governmental finances
from the lens of budgeting. For those teaching
classes on financing, this comprehensive book
amply covers many topics that students will
find of importance.
In closing, I will take this opportunity to note
some significant changes and offer important
welcomes. This is the last issue of JPAE hosted
by Hamline University. It now moves to the
Evans School of Public Affairs at the University
of Washington–Seattle. Professor Marieka
Klawitter at the Evans School and I will serve as
co-editors for the journal. We look forward to
working together and are excited about the
future of JPAE and about continuing to publish
articles that you will find engaging. As always,
please e-mail with your thoughts about the
journal—and of course, consider JPAE as a
source for your own scholarship.
—David Schultz
Co-editor
Hamline University
dschultz@hamline.edu
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ABOUT THE Co-EDITOR
David Schultz is Hamline University professor in
political science and School of Law. Professor
Schultz is a two-time Fulbright Scholar and the
author of more than 25 books and 100+ articles
on various aspects of American politics, election
law, and the media and politics. He is regularly
interviewed and quoted on these subjects in the
local, national, and international media, in­clud­
ing the New York Times, Wall Street Journal,
Washington Post, the Economist, and National
Public Radio. His most recent book is Election
Law and Democratic Theory (Ashgate Publish­
ing, 2014).
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Journal of Public Affairs Education