Teaching Public Administration with visual methods

In this chapter, visual methods are presented as an important means of engaging and enabling students in public administration enquiry. There are two reasons that visual methods are useful in this context, the first being that the subject of public administration is often reduced solely to technical aspects rather than aesthetic and relational ones. Secondly, given that the subject continues to diversify in topic and perspective, it requires equally diverse approaches to support student understanding. The author consequently argues that the teaching of public administration needs to orientate students to its neglected aesthetic, relational and heuristic domains, and enable their enquiry in them. The chapter uses illustrations created by the author to discuss the ways in which visual methods can disrupt expectations and prompt dialogue. It also encourages public administration educators to model curiosity and co-enquiry so that they may help their students to navigate this complex, diverse and changing subject.