This essay explores the interplay between action learning and democracy in organizations, institutions and society. We start by reflecting on the history of democracy as an emancipatory discourse in management learning and education. We elaborate on critical reflection in action-based approaches to learning and identify key elements of critical…

Critical Action Learning (CAL) is undertaken with an awareness of the persistent tension in organisations between the desire to learn and defences against learning. Attempts to learn in organisations are inevitably bound up with the specific emotional and political context that organisations create, as well as the impact that this has on the…

The authors incorporate experiential learning into three courses: Urban Economics, Labor Economics, and the Economics of Inequality. Students visit neighborhoods that, while geographically proximate, remain outside most students' day-to-day experiences, such as a legal red-light district that is also home to low-wage immigrant workers and a public…

Intercultural Education is often framed as relevant only in migration-related contexts. This article challenges that view, arguing that interculturality is a fundamental dimension of education in today's complex and digitalised world. As unfamiliarity becomes ubiquitous, intercultural competence -- understood as the ability to engage…

This paper draws upon recent research into leadership and the use of power in the virtual space and also upon the author's nineteen years as a facilitator of Virtual Action Learning (VAL) and Virtual Leadership (VL) training. This paper briefly surveys various developments in the last twenty years which have nudged us as people and organisations…

It is often a challenge for an instructor to get the students' attention for interactive class learning. This paper focuses on the use of Black Panther movie characters to stimulate power bases discussion in class to encourage reflective observation and abstract conceptualization. Power bases are important because they are interlinked with other…

Service-learning, especially from a critical perspective, is a method of education that aims to bring students into relationships with community members to foster mutual understanding and give opportunity for shared learning and service. Universities that are compelled by their faith to seek justice may be the most effective at implementing…

This article offers a model of how to construct a course that makes the abstract principles of the Catholic social tradition more concrete through community-service learning (CSL). Primary source readings from scripture, the Apostolic Fathers, Thomas Aquinas, and the major documents of Catholic social thought provide the academic theory of the…

This teaching brief describes an experiential project used in a graduate Principles of Management course for nonbusiness undergraduate students. Groups of four to six first-year MBA students interviewed a seasoned manager online twice over the 8-week course and discussed the applications of course material. Project subtopics included an…

This article discusses the value of learning from a psychodynamic approach to experiential learning. This approach is used to help students experience and understand the emotional and relational complexity of leading and managing within organizations. From this perspective, experiential learning means engaging with emotions and with embedded…

Resistance to change is a central topic in the study of change management, with resistance by employees often portrayed as an inevitable and undesirable response to planned change that managers must attempt to overcome. While resistance can be detrimental to organizations, it can also be beneficial, by prompting deeper analysis of a change, or by…

Action learning has evolved over a period of time when managerialism and performativity, which are aspects of neoliberalism, have become stronger and this explains, in part, the emergence of Critical Action Learning (CAL). Performativity, in particular, has increasingly become internalised by people at work. CAL seems to be limited to power…

This article describes the development and utilization of an instructional activity created by the authors for the purposes of preparing social work students for culturally competent practice with members of historically oppressed populations. Experiential activities in the classroom provide an alternative approach to traditional pedagogical…

This paper describes the implementation of a role-play exercise to illustrate the influence of followership styles and effective communication on leader-follower relationship formation and development. We provide the pedagogical theory and evidence behind using role-plays in classroom settings, followed by a literature review pertaining to…

Community engagement professionals (CEPs) often must develop and maintain equitable, high-quality relationships with community partners while supporting student learning and civic development through cocurricular community engagement or for-credit community-based learning programs. Lack of alignment between campus goals and values and those of…