Diversity across the curriculum: Perceptions and practices

Abstract

One step toward generating social equity in public policy and administration is to expose future leaders within the field to a variety of discourses from historically marginalized groups. The new Diversity Across the Curriculum standard recently passed by NASPAA requires public affairs and administration programs to incorporate diversity into the curriculum and other program activities. Through the use of a survey of program directors and a separate content analysis, this study examined the extent to which stand-alone courses on diversity are offered, the instructional strategies used to incorporate the topic of diversity into existing courses, and MPA/MPP program directors' perception of the standard. Results indicate that race, ethnicity, and gender continue to receive more attention than other elements of diversity. Most programs also attempt to integrate issues of diversity into existing courses rather than offer stand alone courses. Program directors emphasized the need for flexibility due to variations in size, composition, and resources of graduate public policy and administration programs.