Critical Management Education, "the role of the reader", and "new media literacy": teaching management studies as a social practice

Objectives. This work investigates an urgent challenge of Management Education (ME) and business schools: “(re)considering the dichotomy between (i) what students learn and academics theorize and (ii) what professionals believe should constitute "useful knowledge" and "relevant skills". The article aims to: (a) bring out the participatory dimension of learning processes by introducing a practice-based learning approach; (b) analyse this mechanism as a form of "intellectual activism" and "cultural emancipation and responsibility" (Critical Management Education). Methodology. The case study, "an ethnography from the field" of a work practice, reconstructs a teaching experience in an undergraduate management course. The hypothesis is that the intertwining of theory and practice is a pedagogical problem related to the character of reflexivity in the ME: "management learning changes as it applies the principle of learning to itself". Findings. By combining narrative theories (textual cooperation) and linguistics studies (new media literacy), the participatory dimension of learning arises from the "dialogue" between the text produced by the course films and the constructs to reread management theories in a knowledge-based key. Management tools and economic paradigms come out “thoughtfully”, problematized through the same dimensions that characterize “the methodological tools for theorizing on ME as a practice, materially and historically situated”. Research limits. The dynamics between practical and theoretical knowledge emerges in the perspective of the CME, only one of the possible expressions of critical pedagogy. Originality of the study. The topic is addressed in terms of organisational learning (practice-based approach) with an interdisciplinary approach.