Incorporating Diversity in Public Administration Education

Ethnic, linguistic, religious, gender and other forms of diversity are central issues for public administration. This is certainly true for communities in which diversity appears in devise forms, such as in post-conflict contexts; it is also the case for any society in which principles of democracy and good governance are established as norms. However, in contemporary public administration education, public administrators are rarely sensitized to the relevance of diversity to their work, let alone how to address it comprehensively. Schools and institutes of public administration must play a lead role in this regard, incorporating diversity into their curriculum in a thematic or topical sense (how diversity is relevant to public service delivery, for example), and in their own policies (such as through application or recruitment strategies).

This CRC workshop presented an opportunity for the synthesis of views and experiences from a range of social, political, and economic contexts. It aimed to address ways of integrating diversity into public administration education comprehensively. Discussions considersed diversity topically and as an issue that should have been integrated into all aspects public administration education. What models of incorporating diversity into public administration education exist? How can curriculum be designed such that public administrators are sensitized to the need to address diversity in their work? How can public administration education itself be a model for incorporating diversity into all aspects of work?

The workshop was designed jointly by the CRC, the Center for Policy Studies, and international experts of the Managing Multiethnic Communities Program of LGI/OSI.