IDENTITY WORK AND PEDAGOGY : REVISITING GEORGE HERBERT MEAD AS A VEHICLE FOR CRITICAL MANAGEMENT EDUCATION AND LEARNING

HUBER, GUY and Knights, David (2022) IDENTITY WORK AND PEDAGOGY : REVISITING GEORGE HERBERT MEAD AS A VEHICLE FOR CRITICAL MANAGEMENT EDUCATION AND LEARNING. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 21 (2). pp. 303-317. ISSN 1537-260X

Abstract

While identity has become an excessive preoccupation of people in everyday life, its centrality to critical management learning and education has sometimes been ignored. In this essay, we explore the strengths and limitations but also the neglect of George Herbert Mead's analysis of self and identity for developing a pedagogy that facilitates critical management learning. Through a sociology of knowledge, we trace this neglect to earlier research wherein, with limited exceptions, Marxian inspired critical research tended to eschew a concern with processes of the self-formation of subjects. We argue that Mead's ideas on reflexivity and indeterminacy are central to learning to think differently, which is the benchmark for teaching from a critical management perspective. Drawing on Michel Foucault's ideas, we theorize identity work in the context of power/knowledge relations in ways that help us to transform our pedagogy. Overall, we seek to challenge not only our students but also ourselves in reflecting on identity work to facilitate ways of thinking and feeling differently in teaching and learning.