Curriculum Isn’t Enough: What Relevant Teaching Means, How It Feels, Why It Matters, and What It Requires

Abstract

In this essay, we focus on what research relevance means in management teaching and highlight the insufficient attention that has been given to the meaningful and emotional aspects of relevance in classroom settings. We challenge ideas that the curriculum should be the almost sole focus of attention with regard to the relevance of management education. Rather, what is more important is students’ meaning-making, accompanied by emotion, and how these result at least in part from the degree to which course materials and activities affect students’ academic self-concepts and identities. These, in turn, affect the extent to which students experience self-enhancement and self-protection, and all of these are conditioned by the social nature of the classroom. We illustrate this argument through three vignettes. In addition, we show the applicability of, and extend, Pelz’s (1978) three types of usefulness of research findings (instrumental, conceptual, and symbolic) for classroom settings, especially in light of meaning-making and emotions. Finally, we discuss what this recognition requires of management educators and suggest strategies that management educators can consider for playing a more proactive role in cultivating students’ meaningful engagement with course materials.

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