1667: Innovating for ‘Middle Age’: Critical Management Education in Practice. (16421)

This Panel Symposium on Critical Management Education (CME) aligns with the overall conference theme, “Innovating for the Future” in its focus on the interplay of innovation, policy, and purpose and in its attempts to rethink conventional ways of leading, managing, and organizing. Perriton and Reynolds (2018) suggest that Critical Management Education (CME) is reaching “middle-age,” a stage potentially marked by introspection and a need for evolution in practice. We begin by recognizing that CME holds a precarious position within business schools (Zald, 2002), and that questions remain about whether Critical Management Studies itself can survive in universities whose finances rely heavily on business education (Parker, 2021). The critique issued by Perriton and Reynolds (2018) regarding CME’s silence over its own privileges is invaluable. They highlight Breen’s (2013) findings on how criticality in CME varies based on educators’ seniority and gender, echoing Vince’s (2010) call for a reflexive examination of CME that addresses the emotions and politics of educational practice. This symposium aims to extend these conversations, focusing on the practical implementation of CME – both within our classrooms and institutions, and exploring the strategies that CME educators are employing. The evolving and dynamic nature of CME is evidenced by its diverse thematic contributions. Recent work demonstrates a critical pedagogy of management might be possible (c.f., Grey et al., 1996), encompassing themes such as the ethics of care in management education (Heath et al., 2019), the organization of work (Dashtipour and Vidaillet, 2020), class privilege and social inequality (Zulfiqar and Prasad, 2021), and the identity work integral to teaching (Knights et al., 2022). We are keen to explore how these themes materialize into practices – be it through developing critical awareness, implementing innovative and participatory teaching methods, addressing diversity and inclusion, understanding classroom dynamics, or balancing theory and practice. We aim to explore these themes, and allied questions, examining key elements crucial to CME practice. For instance, how might more innovative teaching methods, for example emphasizing improvisation, collaboration, and creativity (Bishop et al., 2022), help move from critical content to critical process? Could consciousness-raising experiences challenge students to confront how racial and ethnic differences lead to issues of diversity and inclusion (Edmondson et al., 2022)? How should critical scholars respond to calls for a performative turn in CMS (e.g., Contu, 2020)? Could this be embodying critical values in their teaching, curriculum development, and institutional engagement – could this be a form of intellectual activism praxis (Manning, 2023)?