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82 Pub. Admin. Rev. 977 (2022)
Epistemic Decolonization of Public Policy Pedagogy and Scholarship

handle is hein.journals/pbcamnstn82 and id is 996 raw text is: Received: 7 October 2022 DOI: 10.1111/puar.13560 EDITORIAL Epistemic decolonization of public policy pedagogy and scholarship Sanjay K. Pandey' I Yuan (Daniel) Cheng2 | Jeremy L. Hall3 'Trachtenberg School, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA 2Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA 3School 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.' 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). Public Admin Rev. 2022;82:977-985. 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 © 2022 by The American Society for Public Administration. 977 wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/puar