Title

Using Pragmatism to Bridge the Gap Between Academe and Practice

Document Type

Article

Comments

Presented at the 2006 Conference of the American Society for Public Administration, Denver, Colorado, April 1-4

Abstract

This paper is to first, describe the nature of the academe/practitioner divide. Second, the practitioner friendly philosophy, classical pragmatism is introduced as a way of addressing the divide. Classical pragmatism treats theory and methods of research as tools of practice. Third, the Texas State MPA Program successfully applies classical pragmatism and the łtheory as tool of practice˛ in their capstone research projects. In so doing student/practitioner skills are strengthened and a practitioner friendly academic research (process and product) results.