1st Edition
Teaching Public Administration with Pop Culture
This book offers faculty teaching in public administration and public affairs programs a playbook for using popular culture as a pedagogical tool in the classroom.
Authors Erin L. Borry and Peter A. Jones build a pedagogical framework, detailing the richness and range of media through which pop culture can be accessed, and demonstrate how best to integrate different forms of pop culture to achieve various learning goals. The breadth of content available and practical applicability to the public administration degree offers many opportunities to incorporate pop culture into the curriculum, including in introductory courses on public administration and public service, as well as more advanced budgeting, statistics, ethics, social equity, and open government courses, to name a few. This book offers some examples of pop culture that instructors can readily adapt for use in their own courses, as well as sample assignments and various types of group work, including simulations.
Teaching Public Administration with Pop Culture will be of enormous benefit to instructors of public affairs undergraduate and graduate students, as well as to those teaching in the areas of political science, civics, social studies, and government in higher and K-12 education settings.
1. Introduction Part I: Pedagogy 2. Pop Culture as Pedagogy 3. Choosing Pop Culture for the Classroom Part II: Traditional Pop Culture 4. Television 5. Documentaries and Docuseries 6. Movies 7. Podcasts Part III: Nontraditional Pop Culture 8. Social Media 9. Pop Culture Potpourri Part IV: Incorporating Pop Culture in Large-Scale Activities 10. Simulations and Cases 11. Conclusion
Biography
Erin L. Borry (she/her) is Associate Professor and Director of the Master of Public Administration Program in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA. Her research interests include rules, red tape, social equity, and public administration in pop culture. She has published in Public Administration Review, Public Administration, International Public Management Journal, Public Integrity, Journal of Public Affairs Education and American Review of Public Administration among others.
Peter A. Jones (he/him) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA. He researches the public budgeting processes and financial management practices of local and state governments, school districts, and court systems. His research has been published in the Policy Studies Journal, the American Review of Public Administration, the International Journal of Public Administration, the International Journal of Public Sector Management, and the Journal of Public Affairs Education, among others.
“This book is a gem! Borry and Jones provide a comprehensive text for any faculty member looking to innovate their teaching, using popular culture from film and television as an effective educational tool to enhance lessons in the classroom that are proven to be advantageous to student learning outcomes, as well as priming students with the tools and education needed to be effective future leaders.”
Helen H. Yu, Professor, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, USA
“Artifacts of popular culture provide incomparable pedagogical tools for the public affairs classroom. For anyone interested in popular culture’s uses in the classroom, this exceptional work by Borry and Jones is required reading. With this book, instructors are better prepared to make classes more meaningful for students of all generations.”
Sean McCandless, Associate Professor, School of Economic, Political, and Policy Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, USA
“Erin L. Borry & Peter A. Jones’ book provides practical, evidence-based guidance on how to use pop culture in the college classroom. An invaluable recourse, this book can help any professor use pop culture in a thoughtful way that supports student learning and engagement.”
Seth J. Meyer, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Bridgewater State University, USA
