Disorientation Without Travel: Evoking Critical Reflection and Identity Tension in the Management Classroom

Critical reflection is a core outcome in management education, yet it is often treated as a pedagogical byproduct requiring extensive scaffolding. Longitudinal research on short-term study abroad challenges this view, demonstrating that reflection can emerge organically when learners are immersed in contexts that disrupt assumptions about identity, values, and appropriate behavior. Drawing on experiential and transformative learning theory, this teaching activity translates those mechanisms into a classroom-based intervention without travel. By deliberately engineering group flux, identity constraint, and communal–agentic value tension, the session creates productive disorientation that surfaces values-in-use, activates identity-based sensemaking, and culminates in structured critical reflection. Designed for undergraduate management courses and adaptable for MBA and executive education, the activity is fully instructor ready.