What can students learn from fictional literature? Quite a bit, scholars say

ABSTRACT

Using fictional literature in public administration classrooms has been advocated by public administration educators since the middle of the past century. Stories are asserted to be a legitimate tool to understand social systems, management models, and ethical dilemmas. It is argued that fictional literature influences how students perceive the complicated contexts within which public management occurs. Yet with one exception, public administration scholars have not tested what knowledge students gain from engaging with fictional literature. A systematic literature review is undertaken to learn what scholars from other disciplines have learned about knowledge gained from using fictional literature as a pedagogical tool. The review shows that fictional literature can lead to gains in factual, conceptual, procedural, and metacognitive knowledge. From the identified articles, lessons about how educators can effectively incorporate fictional literature as part of public administration coursework are drawn.

KEYWORDS:

• Competencies gained
• course materials
• fictional literature
• in-class tips
• public administration education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Dwight Waldo also published a monograph on the topic in 1968. This book has been critiqued as “broad rather than deep, [the monograph] is more of a survey than a study, and is more suggestive than exhaustive” (McDaniel, 1978).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Robin J. Kempf

Robin J. Kempf is an Assistant Professor in the College of Public Service at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. She received a PhD in Public Administration and a JD from the University of Kansas and a BA in American Studies from Brandeis University. Prior to joining academia, she spent more than 10 years working for the state of Kansas as an attorney in variety contexts, including serving as the Inspector General for the Kansas Medicaid Program and the State Employee Health Plan. Her research focuses on government accountability, corporate accountability, and law & society. Dr. Kempf has published articles in the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, and the American Review of Public Administration, and Policy & Society, among others. Her recent book projects include The Power of Accountability: Offices of Inspector General on the State and Local Levels (2020) and the coauthored Safety and Security in Hotels and Home Sharing (2020).

Reeti Sharma

Reeti Sharma is a graduate Public Administration student in the College of Public Service at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. She has an undergraduate degree in economics and political science. Reeti has five years of work experience on education related projects in Nepalese and international nonprofit organizations. She is interested in education leadership, policy, and practice. Reeti will be starting a PhD program in education policy after her MPA.