Educating Nonprofit Students as Agents of Social Transformation: Critical Public Administration as a Way Forward

This article brings a critical lens to curricular approaches to nonprofit and philanthropy studies in higher education exploring the extent to which programs educate future leaders for their roles as either neoliberal partners with governments and corporations or community advocates for marginalized people. We discuss the historical changes leading to New Public Management (NPM) in public administration and the adoption of the values of NPM by nonprofit scholars including their infusion into the curriculum of nonprofit education programs. Drawing on critical public administration theorists who have proposed the adoption of democratic values in PA classrooms, we suggest changes to nonprofit and philanthropic studies curricular and pedagogical approaches that will shift the conversation from market-based values to democratic values. We argue that a critical nonprofit and philanthropic studies pedagogy will transform curricular discourses to include voices of marginalized groups and communities, educate students as agents of social transformation, and prepare future third sector leaders for their principal role as community organizers and advocates for social justice. We conclude with a “cautionary tale” discussing potential pitfalls that faculty may face when introducing a critical pedagogy into nonprofit management and philanthropic studies courses.