Understanding the case method: Teaching public administration case by case

Abstract

Case studies provide helpful teaching tools to capture the complexity of administrative problems from an action-oriented perspective. With increasingly complex policy problems at hand, more interdisciplinary, interactive, and discursive approaches to teaching are also in demand. However, the case method offers a broad variety of options for teaching programs, ranging from short case illustrations or vignettes to full-length case studies. Attached to various types of case materials are different didactic approaches that pursue different pedagogic logics and are likely to make different contributions to in-classroom teaching. The case method in teaching public administration, however, comes at a cost and requires extra capacity, higher time budgets as well as new qualifications and roles of teachers plus a good fit of student (self)-selection and teaching objectives. If meaningfully utilized, it enhances our capacity to prepare (future) executives for complex environments.