Critical Not Coercive: Teaching Critical Perspectives While Prioritizing Student's Professional Learning Objectives

Authors:

Keywords: critical management, critical management education, engaged criticality

Abstract: We share a set of generative approaches for navigating tensions between management learners, who often have strictly vocational/instrumental professional objectives, and critically-minded educators who problematize the intent/practice of management and who seek to raise consciousness among learners about issues of power, inequality, and (in)justice. While these differing objectives can sometimes align, there are inherent tensions. At worst, management educators can wield a coercive form of managerial control and neglect the legitimate aims of management learners. We offer a forum for colleagues to help us further articulate an ethos of “engaged criticality,” where learner objectives are prioritized and critical perspectives are fostered as tools to help learners develop critical consciousness that serves them personally and professionally. We draw on shared insights as educators in an institution with a strong social change focus and a highly diverse student body with many first generation students eager to advance their careers.