Critical Pedagogy in the `New Paradigm

• Published in: Management learning Vol. 32; no. 4; pp. 493 - 511
• Main Authors: Dehler, Gordon E., Welsh, M. Ann, Lewis, Marianne W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Thousand Oaks, CA Sage Publications 01.12.2001; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Accountability; Administrator Education; Business education; Core curriculum; Critical Theory; Curricula; Education; Educational Change; Evaluative Thinking; Learning; Management training; MBA programs & graduates; Methods; Pedagogy; Rationality; Students; Teacher Role; Teachers; Teaching Methods; Textbooks; United States > US; complicated understanding; faculty and student roles; critical pedagogy; paradox; critical content; textbooks; management education
• ISSN: 1350-5076; 1461-7307
• DOI: 10.1177/1350507601324005

This article argues for the adoption of critical pedagogy by management educators. This change not only recognizes the Profound shifts in competitiveness that have already occurred in the business environment, but would also equip students as independent learners. Students become capable of a complicated understanding of the historical, social, political, and philosophical traditions underlying contemporary conceptions of organizations and management. Truly critical pedagogy necessitates changes in educational roles, curricular content, and classroom practices to create a learning space that supports and encourages students to engage in critical commentary. This space emerges when power in the classroom is de-centered, disciplinary borders become permeable, and issues are problematized. Two examples of implementing critical pedagogy in content (text selection) and process (paradoxical thinking) are presented to illustrate the potential for the transformation of organizational arrangements. Critical pedagogy in management education possesses the capacity for developing students with a greater sensitivity to the emancipatory and transformational possibilities in the future.