Enriching the intersection of service and transformative learning with Freirean ideas: The case of a critical experiential learning programme in Brazil

Abstract

In this article, we examine the value of combining transformative and service learning pedagogical practices in management education programmes to encourage management students to be more critical and reflexive regarding serious contemporary issues like social inequality and sustainability. We draw on a long-term management education experience conducted in the northeastern region of Brazil, where international students learn how to develop a real-time community-based project with local inhabitants. We argue that while service learning approaches promote pragmatic action-based principles, transformative learning acts at the epistemic level, contributing to change in values. In addition, Paulo Freire’s ideas are integrated to reinforce critical and reflexive dimensions of the learning experience. Our results offer a process-based model showing how a critical experiential learning pedagogy might lead to the development of community-based competences, which, in turn, might lead to changes in the deeply held values of the participants. Freire’s emancipatory ideas are applied not only regarding the relationship between teachers and students, but also to the distinction between Western and non-Western societies, going beyond questioning of the destructive consequences of financial capitalism to question the hegemony of one worldview over all other possible ones.

The construction of interventions based on experiential learning to promote education for sustainability in management teaching

“…The use of the model based on experiential learning integrates important elements for the promotion of EfS in management education and "its value is to propose a consistent and concise view of that empirical experience, a connection between a substantive theory and practice" (Magro, Pozzebon, & Schutel, 2020, p. 15). Despite this, and as reported by the authors (Magro et al, 2020), it is important to stress that the development and implementation of an initiative of this character in a traditional management school is not possible without facing several challenges.…”

Transformative Learning for Sustainability Practices in Management and Education for Sustainable Development: a Meta-Synthesis

“…Within this perspective, a disorienting dilemma cited in the research reviewed that worked with sustainability education is some new or unexpected aspect of the course, in general, a broad conceptualization of the term sustainability, considering concerns other than environmental ones, leading to a reflection of their habits and lifestyles (Weinberg et al, 2020). Conferences also seemed to become a triggering event for sustainable TL (Walshe and Tait, 2019), as well as a course, with different modalities and experiential learning opportunities, through service-learning and civic engagement (Walsh et al, 2020;Dal Magro et al, 2020). Teen et al (2020) considered the ten stages of TL to understand the learning process of small business owners, noting which stages the research subjects went through.…”

“…Several authors have emphasized the role of organizations and managers as powerful actors for the transformation of society in favor of SD (Dal Magro et al, 2020), which highlights the role of management education, training leadership (Leal Filho et al, 2021), and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). ESD has been acknowledged as a way to empower students to develop the knowledge, skills, values, capacities, and dispositions needed to respond to the complex social-ecological issues of the 21st century (Walshe and Tait, 2019).…”

Animal activism in the business school: Using fierce compassion for teaching critical and positive perspectives

“…Compassion in management studies includes how we notice, understand and relate to other humans in the workplace, a skilful ‘knowing in action’ (Worline and Dutton, 2017), that is a relational, community-based competency (Dal Magro et al, 2020) especially useful during difficult events, such as redundancy at work or the death of a colleague (Dutton et al, 2006, 2014; Lilius et al, 2011). As a core human virtue representing ‘moral goodness’ (Cameron and Winn, 2012), compassion is part of what makes ‘human life worth living’ (Gherardi, 2004: 41), thus representing a core quality in the pursuit of human betterment.…”