A bridge over troubled water: Making management education meaningful through ecopedagogy

Offord, M. (2024) A bridge over troubled water: Making management education meaningful through ecopedagogy. 17th Annual University of Glasgow Learning & Teaching Conference, Glasgow, UK, 09 April 2024.

Abstract

The relevance gap within the field of management studies mirrors challenges seen across higher education. In his provocative work, "Management Studies in Crisis," Professor Tournish underscores an alarming disconnect between academic research and the practical realm of management (Tournish 2019). Increasingly, students feel estranged from the actual day-to-day workings of business, viewing their degrees as a path toward a vocation rather than a continuation of academic exploration. The advent of Covid-19 lockdowns and the rapid advancements in AI technology have only exacerbated this disconnection and even raised questions about traditional methods of teaching. One student, in a recent evaluation of a business school management course, succinctly remarked, "management is boring." Enter ecopedagogy, a fusion of Paulo Freire's 'pedagogy of the Earth,' critical pedagogy of place, and experiential learning theory. This approach champions learning by immersion in the world itself—an active learning philosophy that is gaining traction across all levels of education. In the realm of management education, students have the opportunity to engage with the untamed natural world and the intricacies of the built environment, both shaped by the forces of business and management. Here, they can reflect on the evolution of society and their role as future world changers, an experience that AI cannot replicate. In this presentation, I will share my experiments with ecopedagogy principles, ranging from grand outdoor adventures involving Everest summiteers to brief "campus field trips" within the urban landscape of Glasgow's West End and University Campus. The focus is not on extravagant outings but rather on de-familiarising students with the mundane environments we often take for granted, rekindling their imagination, and prompting essential questions that frame modern surroundings through the lenses of ethics, responsibility, and sustainability. I will delve into the "prototyping" approach I've implemented, seamlessly integrating ecopedagogy into existing courses and pursuing more ambitious projects over the past two years. Through student experiences, we uncover the "slow violence" inflicted on our natural and built environments by societal change, cultivating critical thinking over rote learning. This is achieved through multi-sensory exploration, consideration of various time scales, and an array of analytical levels. The cornerstone of this defamiliarization process is field journaling, a conduit for management students to reconnect theory with practice in a responsible, ethical and sustainable manner.

• Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Offord, Dr Matt
• Authors: Offord, M.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > Adam Smith Business School > Management

Related URLs

• Organisation
• YouTube Video