Splintered voices: Australian/New Zealand traditions of teaching public administration

Pioneers of teaching programmes of public administration in the Antipodes were motivated by concern to provide scholarly knowledge and relevant competencies to public service practitioners. In recent years there has been a decline in the number of scholars and educators identifying as public administration experts and an apparent rise in overlapping or competing fields such as management and public policy. Whether this change is a natural response to the environment, or a weakening of the field is the subject of debate. Reviewing trends in public administration in Australia and New Zealand, this chapter describes and evaluates the evolution of contemporary university teaching of public administration. Using categories of professionalization, pedagogic orientation and institutionalization the chapter argues that a stronger identity for public administration in postgraduate education offers a distinctive focus.