A familiar challenge to teaching courses in public administration is helping students develop an understanding of the literature. The Foundations of Public Administration Series is designed in part to address this challenge.

The Foundations of Public Administration contributions have been prepared specifically to assist both students and scholars develop a working knowledge of particular content areas. Whether assigned as reading for students or used as a starting point for instructors, these summaries will identify key themes, questions, and literature for classroom use.

The references provide a starting point for finding the best public administration essays available in each content area. These are certainly not meant to be the only resources for teachers, but they may provide a template for developing a reading list in key content areas of the field, as well as give a head start to students doing research.

All PAR articles are available free to ASPA members. To download specific articles, just visit PAR Online by clicking on the link in the top banner of the PAR home page, or after logging in to the ASPA site at www.aspanet.org, click in the PAR/PA TIMES link on the top banner. Just scroll down to the two links below:

• Access PAR Issues from 1940-1999 (JSTOR)
• Access PAR Issues from 2000-present

Each link will take you to a searchable database where you can find, save and print out hard copies of specific articles published in PAR referenced most by authors of the Foundations of Public Administration Series.

The model syllabi provide advice from the experts about how to incorporate the literature into a course plan. Whether it is just for one lecture, one semester, or an entire series of courses, these syllabi provide a sense of how the vast literature in each content area fits together as a “teachable whole” for “old hands” or those new to the field.