Epistemic decolonization of public policy pedagogy and scholarship

• Published date: 01 November 2022
• Author: Sanjay K. Pandey,Yuan (Daniel) Cheng,Jeremy L. Hall
• Date: 01 November 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13560

EDITORIAL

Epistemic decolonization of public policy pedagogy

and scholarship

Sanjay K. Pandey

1

| Yuan (Daniel) Cheng

2

| Jeremy L. Hall

3

1

Trachtenberg School, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA

2

Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

3

School of Public Administration, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA

Correspondence

Jeremy L. Hall, School of Public Administration College of Community Innovation and Education 528 West Livingston St., DPAC 448R Orlando, FL 32801, USA.

Email: jeremy.hall@ucf.edu

Epistemic decolonization looms large in the academic

Zeitgeist with diverse disciplines convening sessions

and even entire conferences on epistemic decoloniza-

tion.

1

This powerful perspective has been developed

and honed by trailblazing indigenous scholars. Linda

Tuhiwai Smith, a pioneering indigenous social justice

scholar and author of Decolonizing Methodologies,

underscores the broader relevance of this perspective,

“I think indigenous methodologies have something to

contribute beyond solving our own problems, or resolv-

ing our own issues, or contributing to our own societies.

I think our methodologies can contribute to wider

agendas for research.”

2

A recent conference call suc-

cinctly describes the goals of epistemic decolonization:

“Current discussions on epistemic decolonization

acknowledge the need to reflect on the intrinsic white-

ness, colonial legacies, and power imbalances implicit in

knowledge production practices in the field of philoso-

phy of science (Epistemic Decolonization, 2022 -From

Theory to Practice).”

We do not address epistemic decolonization in all its

richness and complexity; instead, we have the modest

goal of exploring epistemic consequences of power

imbalances among disciplinary bodies of knowledge. We

pursue this goal of raising awareness about disciplinary

decolonization by focusing on and interrogating public

policy pedagogy and scholarship.

3

Public policy peda-

gogy and scholarship, or broadly speaking, academic

understanding of formulating and executing sound pub-

lic policy, remains mired in narrow and somewhat insular

disciplinary projects. Put simply, public policy scholar-

ship continues to be viewed as a siloed mishmash of

political science and economics that is structurally self-

sufficient and appropriately stands apart from other

vibrant bodies of disciplinary knowledge such as sociol-

ogy, psychology, and public administration (see Adams

et al., 2016; MacRae Jr & Feller, 1998).

The academic obliviousness to the role of public

administration in public policy formulation and imple-

mentation stands in sharp contrast to real-world

accounts of the central and consequential role of public

administration.

4

We discuss academic structuring of

public policy pedagogy and scholarship in turn, and con-

clude by summing up the implications for disciplinary

decolonizing.

ACADEMIC STRUCTURING OF PUBLIC POLICY

PEDAGOGY AND SCHOLARSHIP

Academic structures, devised for the sake of organizing

intellectual activities of teaching and scholarship, bestow

legitimacy to these activities and acquire a taken-for-

granted character. These structures, however, are not a

part of the “natural order of things”(Anheier, 2019;

Pandey & Johnson, 2019). Indeed, these structures are a

product of historical accidents, path dependence, and

cooperation and conflict among academic and non-

academic constituencies (Henry, 1975; Kettl, 2022).

It is important to recognize these historical accidents

and continuing power struggles over public policy

teaching and scholarship. We make a preliminary effort to

describe the historical and social structuring of public pol-

icy pedagogy and scholarship; an effort that is necessarily

limited and tinted by our perspective as public adminis-

tration scholars. We begin with observations about

public policy pedagogy and move on to public policy

scholarship.

STRUCTURING OF PUBLIC POLICY PEDAGOGY

The most recognizable academic credential in public pol-

icy today is Master of Public Policy (MPP). Whereas the

Received: 7 October 2022

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13560

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