There is growing interest in Management Learning literature in a more critical perspective than has usually been the case in either management education or management development. This article contrasts the concept of critical reflection-drawing on the work of critical theorists in adult education-with the more familiar concept of `reflection'. In proposing how the principles of critical reflection might be applied to management education practice, the distinction is made between educational content (the curriculum) and educational process (methods and structures), drawing attention to the need to consider both in the development of a `critical' management pedagogy.

In response to the growing interest in applying a more critical perspective within management education, this article proposes an approach thatwould reflect critical principles in both its contents and its methods. The essential characteristics of a critical approach to management education are summarized, followed by a discussion of the significance of educational methods and of the ways in which less hierarchical methods in particular could, with some provisos, provide the basis for a critical management pedagogy. The article ends by drawing attention to some of the potential pitfalls of introducing management students to a critical perspective.

The focus of the paper is a review of the more problematical aspects of introducing a critical perspective into the practice and content of management education. As an introduction, the author summarizes the arguments for critical reflection in the education of managers, the characteristics which distinguish it from ‘reflection’– the more familiar concept in the literature – and ‘critical thinking’. The ways that a critical perspective can be reflected in educational method as well as in the content of the curriculum are also elaborated before describing the problems and complications of implementing such an approach from accounts in the literature of adult and management education. The paper outlines the reasons why critical reflection might be resisted, the mental or social disruption which can result from its application and the implications of both for the practice of management teachers.

ii I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. This is a true copy of the thesis, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners.I understand that my thesis may be made electronically available to the public.iii AbstractThe process of generating a phonological code from print is widely described asautomatic. This claim is tested in Chapter 1 by assessing whether phonological recoding uses central attention in the context of the Psychological Refractory Period (PRP) paradigm. Task 1 was a tone discrimination task and Task 2 was reading aloud.Nonword letter length and grapheme-phoneme complexity yielded additive effects with SOA in Experiments 1 and 2 suggesting that assembled phonology uses central attention. Theoretical development in this field (and others) will be facilitated by abandoning the idea that skilled performance inevitably means that all the underlying processes are automatic.iv Acknowledgements

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