by Michelle D. Evans, Nancy Lewis, & José Luis Irizarry
Image of a globe.
The IGEPS Blog Series examines shifts in policymaking across our decentralized republic, with emphasis on the intersection of state/local governments and the nonprofit sectors where most policy and implementation clashes are most visible and impactful.
In this blog, we focus on the implications of preparing future public and nonprofit leaders to navigate current and future policy shifts in an increasingly polarized environment. The concept we apply is that of public service faculty as street-level bureaucrats who are preparing future frontline street level bureaucrats (Lipsky, 1980) through the use of “street-level pedagogy” that utilizes critical reflection in course design and materials, encourages the incorporation of a broad spectrum of perspectives and lived experience, and attention to communication practices to encourage engagement (Irizarry et al., 2024).
Street-level Educators Training Current and Future Street-level Administrators
A critical role of faculty in public administration and nonprofit programs is to prepare students to work in public service. Men make up approximately 53% of the general workforce (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025). Women make up 45.5% of the federal public service workforce (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 2021) and nearly 67% of the nonprofit workforce (Miller, 2024). In terms of education, in recent decades women represent the majority (53%) of college educated workers in the general workforce (Fry, 2025). Within public service higher education, women make up 59% of accredited public service masters students (Qiu, 2024), while nearly three-quarters of workers in the nonprofit sector have an associate degree or higher (Miller, 2024).
With these statistics in mind, it is important to consider the challenges of educators on the frontline of professional development, training, and education. Public administration and nonprofit educators, through street-level pedagogy, attempt to prepare current and future public service leaders (Irizarry et al., 2024). Educators must address the specialized disciplinary knowledge and the holistic development of each student as they prepare to be productive leaders within the field. Pedagogical choices are informed by the professional norms and values of public service, where the daily reality can be emotionally intense when interacting with people in need and in times of crisis. It is imperative that public service education programs continue to emphasize social skills to prepare for working with the public as this is core to the public and nonprofit praxis which are front- and human-facing activities.
Recent shifts in policies impacting the public workforce, in higher education in particular, require that educators reflect on and evaluate their ongoing pedagogical choices and how they align with the current (and anticipated) workforce realities. At the same time, self-reflection of street-level pedagogy should consider how changes in workforce realities might also shift public service norms and values within academic programs and praxis.
Scanning the Horizon: Aligning and Adapting
Gendered shifts in the workforce are not new. Historically, we have seen shifts in the workforce (e.g. industrialization, urbanization, WWII, Civil Rights Era, COVID-19) connected to gender and gendered social norms (Nobel Prize Committee, 2023; Schaeffer, 2024; Yellen, 2020). Similarly, we have seen shifts in student demographics, perhaps corresponding to the shifting workforce needs and demands. We’ve seen across the board downsizing efforts of the public sector workforce with similar trickle-down impacts on employment at the state and local levels, nonprofit sector, and related actors and industries due to uncertainty associated with recent federal policy shifts.
These are not the only dramatic shifts we have seen nor anticipate. At this critical fork in the pedagogical road, this is an opportune time for reflexive examination of our public service values and praxis that must continue to be addressed within our curricula and educational programs moving forward. Therefore, we provide the following selection of critical and emerging issues that will need to be addressed in the gender equity policy landscape:
- Enrollment/recruitment of faculty and students—how do these need to be adjusted in the light of new rules and regulations to curb DEI initiatives and goals. This includes how to respond to new policy shifts on H1B visas and work authorizations.
- Educational reimagination – the “how” to teach:
- learning modalities (online, hybrid, or face-to-face)
- how/whether to accommodate student preferences in modalities, and increasing school/work/life-balance issues.
- incorporating social and interpersonal skill development within increasingly online and remote environments
- Educational reimagination – the “what” to teach:
- Academic freedom in course design/material vs increasing oversight by accrediting bodies, consumer watch groups, and legislative/executive policies
- Use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools:
- how do we balance the misuse and potential over reliance of AI in ways that limit student creativity, critical thinking, and learning of the specialized disciplinary knowledge and skills.
- how do we prepare students to be part of a workforce whose reliance on AI tools may fundamentally alter how we think of public engagement.
- how do we address the built-in gender and demographic equity issues arising from AI algorithms and programming
It is essential that our curriculum reflects disciplinary core values, balancing the needs of efficiency, effectiveness, economy and equity. At the same time, we must also ensure that our curriculum is designed to effectively, and equitably, serve the needs of all students and future public sector leaders. In doing so, we ultimately are able to make positive change while serving the needs of the public, particularly those vulnerable populations most often in need of public services. How we address and/or resolve these debates are likely to transform the public service education landscape and by extension the policy and service delivery in the near and long-term future.
About the author:
Michelle D. Evans is an associate professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Her research focuses on social equity, diversity/intersectionality and pedagogy. She is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Social Equity and Public Administration and has served on the board of ASPA Section for Women in Public Administration. She spent more than 20 years as a nonprofit practitioner, working primarily with Special Olympics.
About the author:
Nancy Lewis is a dedicated nonprofit professional and enjoys working with mission-driven organizations. She strives to strengthen community engagement and specializes in work with vulnerable populations. Nancy is currently completing her Master of Public Administration at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where her studies focus on nonprofit management, governance, and policy.
About the author:
José Luis Irizarry, Ph.D (he/him) is an Assistant Professor of Public Administration & Director of the Graduate Nonprofit Management Certificate at North Carolina Central University. His research focuses on public and nonprofit values, pedagogy, social equity, mindfulness, and civic engagement. He is the Editor of Public Administration, Civic Engagement, and Spanish-Speaking Communities (October 2025), as well as lead Guest Co-Editor of the forthcoming special issue on foster care and adoption for the Journal of Nonprofit Education and Leadership.