Measuring the practice of engagement in public administration

Following recent calls for greater synergies between public administration's (PA)'s academic and practitioner communities, this paper examines the prevalence and use of engaged teaching and faculty practices in Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA)-affiliated schools. Results are reported from a survey of PA academic program leaders that includes specific practices - such as the use of service-learning pedagogies, teaching-cases, and faculty-practitioner exchange programs - suggested in the literature. While anecdotal evidence suggests that these practices promote connectedness between PA's scholarly and practitioner communities, little is known empirically about how widely they are employed or how their use differs across faculty cohorts and institutional settings. This study attempts to address that gap, providing both empirical context and a baseline against which future studies can be compared.