arbiter
JournalsPricingAccount

Preparing public administrators and policy analysts for a polarized world

Mark K. McBeth & Jessica M. Sargent

Teaching Public Administration2026https://doi.org/10.1177/01447394251414682article
AJG 1
Weight
0.50

What the paper says

Political polarization affects the daily work of public administrators. Despite its global prevalence, the public administration teaching literature has given little attention to how students can be prepared to work in polarized environments. We describe how we teach key components of polarization including theories of political polarization, the role of narratives in deepening polarization, the impact of social media, and the influence of cognitive biases on the power of political narratives. Next, we introduce four tools designed to help students confront polarization in their professional roles followed by a class-tested case study that demonstrates how students can apply course concepts in practice. We conclude with twelve key lessons learned from teaching the course.

Open paper page →

Cite this paper

https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/01447394251414682

Or copy a formatted citation

@article{mark2026,
  title        = {{Preparing public administrators and policy analysts for a polarized world}},
  author       = {Mark K. McBeth & Jessica M. Sargent},
  journal      = {Teaching Public Administration},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/01447394251414682},
}

Paste directly into BibTeX, Zotero, or your reference manager.

Flag this paper

Preparing public administrators and policy analysts for a polarized world

Flags are reviewed by the Arbiter methodology team within 5 business days.

Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.