Context-based Instruction: What Traditional Social Science Disciplines Offer to Nonprofit Management Education

Abstract

What can traditional social science disciplines offer to contemporary nonprofit management education? We argue that the focus on context provided by traditional disciplines contrasts with operations-oriented approaches common to management education. Drawing on a sample of 110 courses from 22 programs, we illustrate the operations-oriented focus of current nonprofit management programs and discuss the likely rationales behind that tendency. We argue that nonprofit management education would benefit from greater emphasis on context-based approaches and suggest how traditional social science disciplinary approaches can be used to create distinctive nonprofit management courses. We suggest ways to integrate such courses into nonprofit management programs and consider what it would take to move the field of nonprofit management instruction toward a more integrated model.