Encountering Reality: Teaching Politics and Management to Professional-School Students

Abstract

Student workshops provide a useful adjunct to curricula emphasizing political and institutional analysis. A workshop consists of a student team that helps a government or nonprofit agency solve a pressing policy related problem. As such, they can give students insights into the political and organizational contexts in which policy decisions are made. Through the student's daily encounters with the “client” organization, the traditional lessons of organizational analysis take on much greater meaning. Moreover, students are forced to practice the analytical skills taught in the classroom to obtain their own goals. As an educational experience, workshops are unusually rich and persuasive. On the other hand—the richness and immediacy of the workshop inhibits generalizations and insights. It is the instructor's responsibility to provide a framework so that the educational value of the workshop is not lost.