Adult education - Andragogy

It’s Called AndragogySTEPHEN PAUL FORREST III

Hertford College, University of Oxford

TIM O. PETERSONTexas A&M University

Despite radical changes in teaching assumptions, management educators have continuedto use the archaic term pedagogy to describe their work. The word pedagogy refersspecifically to children and assumptions for teaching children. Thus, pedagogy does notencompass the needs of adults common in management classrooms today. To ensurecongruence with the emerging management teaching methods, we advocate adoption ofthe term andragogy. Such a word focuses on the adult learner and creation of anindependent, adaptable individual. Underpinning andragogy are four assumptionsregarding learning: a self-directing self-concept; use of experience; a readiness to learn;and a performance-centered orientation to learning. Management educators already usetechniques that take advantage of these andragogical assumptions. Adoption of the termandragogy would align the philosophy of management educators with the currentdynamic instructional strategies already in use.

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Change is afoot in management education. Oldmodels of a management professor lecturing fromthe front of a classroom no longer meet the needsof the ever-shifting world. As business structuresbecome flatter, individuals within groups must be-come more self-sufficient and better able to solvetheir own problems. The field of management ed-ucation has responded to such changes with in-creasingly dynamic instructional strategies andmethods that seek to better prepare individuals forthe business world.

Even with these dynamic changes, it is ironicthat an article in the inaugural issue of the Acad-emy of Management Learning & Education promi-nently featured the concepts of “pedagogy” and“pedagogical choices” (Clair, MacLean, & Green-berg, 2002). Pedagogy is an archaic term that theancient Greeks utilized to describe the educationof children. Lackluster linguistics has requiredstretching pedagogy so that the term encompassesall education. Despite this modern mutilation ofmeaning, the term pedagogy still retains its an-cient core assumptions about teaching children.Yet, management education does not seek to workwith children; it attempts to educate adults andpre-adults. Thus, the child-oriented term pedagogy

does not seem to fit within the context of an articleexamining management learning choices.

The authors of the inaugural article advocatedincorporating student feelings and interests in thelearning process (Clair, MacLean, & Greenberg,2002). However, such goals totally contradict ped-agogy’s thrust. Pedagogy is not learner-centered(Knowles, 1977). It focuses on the subject matter tobe learned and what the instructor knows (Notting-ham Andragogy Group, 1983). Pedagogy’s philoso-phy ignores what students bring to the learningexperience in favor of predetermined course con-tent (Knowles, 1980). The neglect for the needs anddesires of the learner does not mesh with the newapproaches surfacing in management education.

However, fault for such word choice does not liewith the authors, nor is it limited to them. Thearticle displays the symptoms of a greater problemwithin the field of management education. Man-agement education may have started a shift to amore learner-centered approach, but using “peda-gogy” shows that the field’s mind-set still viewsstudents as dependent children rather than inde-pendent adults. In fact, all issues of the Journal ofManagement Education have used the term “ped-agogy” or “pedagogical.” While the subject-centered, child-oriented term is used, most man-agement education articles do not look at children.Instead the field of management education cur-rently examines how teachers can incorporate stu-

We would like to thank Claudette M. Peterson for her thoughtfuland insightful comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript.

� Academy of Management Learning & Education, 2006, Vol. 5, No. 1, 113–122.

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dent contributions and actions into the learningexperience. Management educators have movedbeyond the philosophy of pedagogy to a morelearner-centered outlook, but they still use thechild-oriented term to describe their work. Al-though management education has made signifi-cant changes in its philosophical approach andinstructional strategies, few educators understandwhy the new methods are more effective than theold. In this situation, the management educatorunderstands that the educational technique worksbut does not understand why it works. Much like abusiness that doesn’t understand why its businessmodel is effective, lack of comprehension stiflesingenuity and innovation.

Management education may have starteda shift to a more learner-centeredapproach, but using “pedagogy” showsthat the field’s mind-set still viewsstudents as dependent children ratherthan independent adults.

Thus, the field exists as a paradox. On one hand,teachers yearn to find methods that incorporatestudents’ interests. This inclusion has occurred be-cause management educators have responded tothe calls to produce students who can apply whatthey know. Modern management requires the prac-tical implementation of skills learned, not regurgi-tation of principles. Without implementationknowledge, students cannot adapt to the ever-changing workplace. On the other hand, manage-ment education still uses the subject-centered,child-oriented, and nondynamic term, pedagogy.Instead of preparing students to work on their own,a pedagogical mind-set simply looks to fill empty,passive minds with the instructor’s knowledge.Thus, a pedagogical way of viewing education di-rectly counters the new management teachingmethods which are focused on learning for appli-cation and work in the adult world.

In the current situation, the term pedagogy actslike a shackle holding management education topast notions of learning. Using pedagogy uncon-sciously binds management educators to princi-ples of learning developed for children. In the faceof such imprisonment, employers require, studentsyearn for, and instructors attempt to construct newways of helping future workers learn both the the-ory and practicality of management. Liberationfrom the old notions might lie in a single word:andragogy. Differing from pedagogy, the term an-dragogy assumes that students are the principle

players in the teaching–learning transaction. Man-agement educators must focus on implementingandragogy and an andragogical mind-set in orderto be congruent with the field’s new educationaldirection.

In the current situation, the termpedagogy acts like a shackle holdingmanagement education to past notions oflearning.

WHAT IS ANDRAGOGY?

At first blush, the word andragogy may seem sim-ply like a modified version of pedagogy. Indeed,they share the same root—gogy—a Greek word forleading. In modern times, this has been modifiedto mean teaching, or instruction. However, similar-ities between the two terms end with a commonlinguistic root. “Peda” translates as child, makingpedagogy the art and science of teaching children(Simpson & Weiner, 1989). However, “andra” is aform of the word adult. Thus, andragogy literallymeans the art and science of teaching adults. Inthe andragogical sense, adults are those individ-uals who have taken on adult roles in society,whether they are the 16-year-old mother or the87-year-old retiree. Darkenwald and Merriam(1982) posit that an adult is someone who has as-sumed the primary social role of worker, spouse, orparent and has left the principal social role offull-time student that children and adolescentshold. In simple terms, pedagogy is oriented toteaching children and their characteristics. Bycomparison, andragogy is dedicated to teachinghumans who perform socially productive roles andhave assumed primary responsibility for their ownlives. Thus, while pedagogy focuses on issues ofchildren, the andragogical mind-set puts primacyon the issues of application of knowledge to reallife.

The term andragogy dates back to 19th centuryEurope. In Germany, Alexander Kapp developedthe term to denote a changed view that adultslearned differently (Nottingham Andragogy Group,1983). The term fell into disuse until Eugen Rosen-back revived it in 1921 at a Frankfurt conference.By the 1960s educators and trainers widely usedthe term in France, Yugoslavia, and Holland.

Contemporary use of the term developed fromthe works of Malcolm Knowles. Though first intro-duced in 1968, it came into widespread use in 1970with Knowles’ publishing of The Modern Practiceof Adult Education: Andragogy Versus Pedagogy.

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Knowles’ use of andragogy unified the adult edu-cation field of study by providing a rallying pointand separating the adult education principles fromthose of children.

While accepted by many teachers, andragogywas refined based on criticism from other adulteducators. Knowles had stated that a teacher waseither pedagogical or andragogical (Knowles,1977). However, educators described situationswhere Knowles’ andragogy was used in pre-adultpopulations with effectiveness. For this reason,Knowles (1980) revised the relationship betweenthe two terms in the 1980 edition of his book. In thenew edition of The Modern Practice of Adult Edu-cation, he defined the relationship as a spectrumranging from the subject-centered pedagogy to thelearner-centered andragogy. Table 1 shows the un-derlying assumptions for these two different phi-losophies.

Neither andragogy nor pedagogy is a teachingtechnique. Instead they are the philosophy that ateacher looks to for guidance. Both philosophiesexamine the foundational goals of teaching. Bycomparison, the term instructional strategy de-notes the methods whereby specific knowledge isconveyed within the philosophical framework.Thus, instructional strategies are neither pedagog-ical nor andragogical; both philosophies can anddo use all strategies. However, the way pedagogyuses such strategies differs greatly from an andra-gogical implementation. Thus, management edu-cators who move to andragogical teaching mayfind that they use many of their old instructionalstrategies in new and different ways. Changingfrom a pedagogical lecture to an andragogical lec-ture does not require writing new speaking notes,but rather a new approach to when and how aninstructor should use the lecture method. Figure 1

shows the link between philosophy and instruc-tional strategies.

When the term was introduced in the field ofadult education, andragogy solved the problem ofconflicted terms and methods. Similar to manage-ment education, adult education faced a conflict oflearner-centered methods and the subject-centeredassumptions defined by the term pedagogy. Meth-ods may change but if the paradigm that theteacher works in does not shift, effective instruc-tion is difficult. For example, use of a noncollabo-rative, multiple-choice test to assess interpersonalskills is counterproductive as well as highly ironic.Implementation of instructional methods and theteaching assumptions need to match. If manage-ment educators wish to use methods in a learner-centered way, they need to have more than goodintentions; they need a learner-centered philo-sophical outlook. The practice of an andragogicalteaching approach recognizes and solves thisproblem by assembling a learner-centered para-digm congruent with learner-centered methods.

A pedagogical teaching paradigm is predicatedupon the concept of dependency. Students are as-sumed to know little. Thus, the instructors providepupils with the necessary information. Students donot know what they need to learn until the instruc-tor provides them with the necessary information.Pedagogy results in a pupil who is reliant on theinstructor. Such a philosophy is consistent withPalmer’s (1998) objectivist myth of finding the truth.

By comparison, the andragogical teaching para-digm assumes the relationship between theteacher and the student is similar to that of trav-eler and guide (Knowles, 1977). The student knowsthe destination and has prior experiences in trav-eling. The teacher provides direction and allowsstudents to make use of their experiences and seek

TABLE 1Pedagogical Andragogical Learning Assumption

Pedagogy Andragogy

Self-Concept Learners are dependent onexternal sources such as aninstructor to assess andprovide their needs.

Learners are aware of themselves and theirneeds and bring this knowledge to theeducational activity.

Learner’s Experience Learners bring little experienceto the educational activityand thus experience is notused in the learning process.

Learners bring a wealth of usable experienceand knowledge to the educational activity,thus experience is used in the learningprocess.

Readiness to Learn The need to know developsfrom external forces; often aninstructor mandating thelearning process that shouldtake place.

The need to know develops from an internalneed to better address roles andresponsibilities the learner faces.

Learning Orientation Subject or Teacher Centered Problem or Performance Centered

2006 115Forrest III and Peterson

new information. However, in andragogy, the in-structor would not be considered simply a con-veyer of information. They are mentors and guideswho help the students develop. For this reason,andragogy is considered a learner-centered edu-cational paradigm. The final goal of andragogydevelops humans capable of adaptation, free in-quiry, and self-sufficiency. The instructor becomesless important to the personal learning of the stu-dent as the educational process continues. Thisoutlook is constant with Palmer’s (1998) communityof truth.

Andragogy’s underpinnings exist in a set of as-sumptions regarding the teaching–learning trans-action. Knowles (1977) originally defined four suchassumptions:

1. Adults have a self-concept of a self-directingpersonality;

2. Adults bring a wealth of experience to thelearning process;

3. Adults come to the learning process ready tolearn; and

4. Adults are oriented toward immediate appli-cation of learned knowledge.

Knowles (1984, 1989) later added two addition as-sumptions:

5. Adults need to know the reason for learningsomething;

6. Adults are driven by intrinsic motivation tolearn.

However, these last two assumptions have beenaccepted to varying degrees by educators and areoften not included with the original core four. Theteaching techniques used in management educa-tion already display an understanding of andra-gogical assumptions, but the field as a whole hasyet to incorporate a true andragogical mind-set.The omission of andragogy in favor of pedagogyhobbles the emerging learner-centered focus inmanagement education.

ANDRAGOGICAL ASSUMPTIONS

Self-Directed Learners

Unlike children, adult learners are not defined bytheir roles as students but rather by the variousidentities they must use to live their lives. Forexample, one of the first questions often asked of achild is “What grade are you in?” The inquiry spe-cifically focuses on the year as a student. The foun-dation for the question is the assumption in West-ern society that children must be students. Adultslive with a different set of standards. Instead ofassuming that they are students, society sees anadult as a worker, a provider, or a member of the

FIGURE 1Philosophy and Instructional Strategies


community. Thus, the first question for an adultoften addresses the employment of the person orfamilial makeup.

Adults incorporate such an assumption into theirself-concepts. The student or learner parts of theiridentities are not primary. Instead, they are par-ents, spouses, or workers before they are students.Each identity requires at least a modicum of re-sponsibility. Thus, the myriad of diverse roles re-quires adults to become responsible, self-directingindividuals.

An adult learner may work as an employee, mayshoulder parental responsibility, and may acceptthe duties of a citizen. As adults voluntarily chooseto enter the educational world, they do not leavethese other identities behind. Rather, they bring allof their personalities and the accompanying self-directing, self-concept with them into the class-room. Thus, as responsible individuals, adults nat-urally seek to direct their own educationalexperience.

Teachers who accept the andragogical assump-tions see such learner self-direction as valid andnatural. Andragogical educators respect the adultlearners they teach as individuals with a desire topersonally direct learning. For example, allowingadult learners in a management class to pick theirown readings based on the competence they wantto develop during the semester would be a goodexample of self-directed learning. However, stu-dents are often wary of such an open teachingphilosophy. Adult learners have often faced yearsof pedagogical schooling that has placed them independant roles that would threaten an adult self-directing self-concept. These past experiences canmake adult learners wary of new educational ex-periences (Kidd, 1959). Andragogically orientedteachers must overcome this challenge and showstudents that a self-directing persona is valid, ac-ceptable, and often needed in the learning process.

The andragogical assumption regarding theself-directing self-concept has deep roots in man-agement education. The belief that studentsshould be considered partners in the educationalprocess is one of the most prominent concepts inthe field (Bilimoria, 2000). Indeed, many manage-ment teaching methods develop from this basicassumption that students should have an activerole in the classroom.

Management educators already claim that thenurturing of the learner’s self-direction throughstudent partnerships in the education processshould take as many forms as possible. Teacherscan work with students in order to design a course,implement instructional strategies, and decide onassessment methods. In such a system, communi-

cation between the instructor and the learnershould flow freely. One idea to facilitate such aprocess implements a student ombudsperson. Thisstudent conveys suggestions of fellow students di-rectly to the teacher at an informal level (Herring &Mendleson, 1999). Such a relation rests on a funda-mental respect between the students and theteacher. Communication regarding instructionalcontent and methods allows students to becomepartners in the management education processrather than passive receptors. The concept of in-creased communication between the learner andthe instructor readies the students for work in theflatter organizational structures that are emergingin the world of business.

In the andragogical model, such active studentsallow the teacher to help students develop as totalhumans. Such a total human concept transcendsonly conveying information. Traits such as leader-ship require more than knowledge of skills; theyrequire characteristics such as conviction and will(Gallos, 1997). Teachers cannot teach conviction.However, they can empower students to developsuch characteristics. Such empowerment possibil-ities develop from trust among partners in the ed-ucational endeavor (Eylon & Herman, 1999). Andra-gogy fosters such trust and empowerment byrespecting the students’ abilities to direct theirown lives and educational endeavors. Thus, theandragogical classroom mirrors the world outsideof the school where students must make basic eth-ical and moral choices that will impact themselvesand the organizations in which they work.

In addition to trust, an andragogical manage-ment teacher, like a good manager, attempts tocultivate self-awareness in students. People whounderstand themselves may more effectively helpothers. Similarly, good mangers need to under-stand themselves in order to effectively help others(Caproni & Arias, 1997). However, development ofsuch self-awareness can only occur when theteacher sees the students as having the ability tointernalize the information, reflect on it, and makechanges within themselves. When managementeducators believe students can actively assessthemselves, they may facilitate students’ aware-ness of their own strengths and shortcomings(Rivera, 1999).

The emphasis on diverse roles that breed theself-awareness and self-assessment in studentshas not always been a high priority. Traditionally,educators often think of such roles as distinct andseparate from the learning process. Without adoubt, the organizational context and positions ofa class and a workplace are different even if amanagement class may mimic a management sit-


uation (Pitt & Simms, 1998). Being a student is notthe same as being an employee. Customarily, ed-ucators have overcome such differences by banish-ing the nonstudent identities from the classroom.

Rather than seeing such differences as an obsta-cle, the andragogical management educator willseek to incorporate such identities into class. Oneway of accomplishing the integration places man-agement students in the elementary schools in or-der to teach business concepts to grade schoolchildren (Falkenberg, Russell, & Ricker, 2000). Byteaching children, management students need todistill basic ideas and make them understandableto the very young. Thus, by assuming the role ofboth teacher and elder, management studentsmust review their own knowledge and find whatinformation must be understood. Such a situationutilizes the status and roles of adult students in theeducational process rather than avoiding them.The technique also readies students for a worldwhere, increasingly, the best leaders are found tobe teachers (Tichy, 1997).

Experience

Andragogy is predicated on the belief that duringthe span of living, humans accumulate experience.The collective experiences become an individual’sidentity and from that foundation, humans createtheir self-image. Thus, in a very real way, adultsare what they have done. From an andragogicalperspective, education builds on, examines, andexpands the base of experience. Students bringapplicable knowledge and skills to the learningprocess. They seek to fill the gaps of knowledge intheir experience base.

By comparison, pedagogy is predicated on stu-dents having a very limited amount of experience.This concept developed from children’s quantita-tive lack of experience due to their age. Thus, ped-agogy concentrates not on learning from experi-ence, but instead on instituting an experiencebase.

Because andragogical teachers assume learnershave experiences, use of such experiential knowl-edge is necessary for the education process to beeffective. Experience becomes a textbook. Teach-ers strive to relate the content of the class to theexperiences of the learner, and thereby, make theteaching relevant to the student. To not use such areservoir of experience would waste the learners’potential expertise. Involving experience makeslearners active participants in the education pro-cess. They no longer assume a passive role. Suchan active student allows a teacher to further breakout of the role as conveyer of knowledge and be-

come a guide and mentor. Indeed, managementeducators who begin to utilize an andragogicaloutlook may find students demanding less recita-tion of raw information and more knowledgeplaced in the context of experience.

Congruent with the andragogical philosophy,management educators recognize that studentscan use their experiences to further the educa-tional process. Indeed, various exercises havebeen developed to utilize and extend what thestudent already knows by way of experience (Neal,Schor, & Sabiers, 1998; Mello, 2000; Waddock, 1999).The attractiveness of using experience lies in theease with which students can tackle new informa-tion. Instead of attempting to build something com-pletely new, teachers make connections betweenthe new information and what students alreadyknow (Sankowsky, 1998). In a time organizationsdemand quick adaptation, cultivating experientialtechniques gives students another method to copewith a dynamic world.

Additionally, teaching using experience can beextremely effective in a classroom with a range ofages. Shaw and Fisher (1999) remarked that 18- and19-year-olds did not have the sufficient experien-tial knowledge to make practical application ofknowledge learned in a traditional lecture. How-ever, teachers can facilitate learning in the pre-adult students by having more experienced stu-dents tie together the theoretical and practical(Brumagim, 1999). This technique also introducesfuture managers to the realities of dealing withdiverse groups, a commonality in the businessworld.

Use of experience also facilitates the student’srole as an active participant. Researchers havewidely acknowledged that learning is enhancedwhen student experience is used in the classroom(Mallinger, 1998). Indeed, students who are activeand feel their experience being utilized have areason to be engaged in the learning process. Theymay stop being passive students and start to be-come partners or clients in the management edu-cational experience (Bailey, 2000; Ferris, 2002).

Management educators can enhance the use ofexperience in the learning process by providingsituations that allow the students to reflect on oc-currences. One method that integrates reflectionon experience and the learning process in a formaleducational setting occurs through role-play (Cu-pit & Isles, 1999). In this teaching method, studentsassume a role in a fictional setting in order to usetheir knowledge and skills (Cousins, 1999). Theclassroom becomes a laboratory where prior expe-riences and learned knowledge come together.Students can act, see the results of what they do,


reflect, revise their assumptions, and attempt fur-ther implementation. As an additional bonus, thereflection process helps the more experienced stu-dents to see what they already know and wherethey need further information.

Readiness to Learn

As previously mentioned, adults have a variety ofidentities apart from being a student. Society hasthrust the roles of citizen, parent, friend, worker,and leader on to them. Each role has certain re-quirements and responsibilities for the adult. Fromthe adult’s perspective, responding to the needs ofthese identities requires learning to become betterprepared to fulfill the obligations. Thus, adults willlearn about concepts that have applicability tothem. Conversely they will find little interest inideas that are not relevant to them. Life roles de-termine an adult’s readiness to learn.

For example, a single, childless adult may havelittle reason to learn about care for infants. Noobvious reason exists for them to exert effort inlearning something that may or may not be appli-cable. However, if they are expecting to become aparent or caregiver for an infant, such knowledgebecomes relevant. The readiness to learn haschanged, and the adult may want to find out aboutthe area of knowledge. Similarly a newly promotedmanager may have had little interest in learningabout giving performance feedback when holdinga nonmanagement position. However, such an in-dividual can be eager to learn such informationbecause the knowledge has relevance once theindividual is promoted to a management position.

Thus, teachers of adults must be able to contex-tualize issues that need to be learned. When noimmediate reason to learn a subject exists, teach-ers must demonstrate the importance of such infor-mation. In addition, teachers using andragogicalapproaches must be willing to modify class sched-ules to incorporate issues the students find impor-tant. For example not to talk of crisis managementin the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11,2001 would neglect heightened student interests.Such a discussion could demand a reordering ofthe scheduled teaching exercises. However, froman andragogical perspective, the effort involved isthe natural response to a teachable moment andpromotes an unparalleled opportunity for learning.Management educators using the andragogicalapproach see the unexpected not as an interferingproblem but as an invaluable possibility.

Management education has addressed the con-cept of readiness to learn in different ways. Forexample, management educators have long seen

the need to make things relevant to their students.Without relevance, students feel little reason toengage in the learning process. With relevance,students become active, willing participants intheir own education (Bilimoria, 1998a; Kolb, 1999;Ryland, 1998). Teachers who attempt to find what isimportant to their students will find learners whowillingly participate (Barclay & York, 1996).

In crafting programs relevant to students, man-agement educators often seek issues analogous tobusiness situations. Because most students learnin order to more effectively work, they are ready tolearn about concepts that they can immediatelyapply in the workplace. It can be a challenge for aninstructor to develop ways of showing how theo-retical ideas can be actively applied (Barbuto,2000). However, even activities that approximatereal-life situations will help students; learners canstill use the precepts of an activity, even if they donot directly apply to their situation (Egri, 1999).

In order to utilize the students’ readiness tolearn, teachers need to create environments wherestudent interests are free to surface. To accomplishsuch atmospheres, the teacher may construct amatrix of inquiry, where students’ concerns regard-ing what knowledge they need can be expressedwith ease (French, 1997). One effective way of do-ing this is the role-play, where students can see ina nonthreatening situation how concepts apply tothem (Kern, 2000; Silver, Howard, & Clouse, 1999).Another method, mentoring, links students andprofessionals. This relationship enables studentsto see how classroom learning applies in the busi-ness world (Schlee, 2000). Through such a process,students can expand their topics of interest andthus the areas of intellectual exploration.

Orientation to Learning

Closely related to readiness to learn is the orien-tation to learning. From the andragogical point ofview, adults learn because they need to addressissues in their lives. Thus, they enter the learningprocess from a performance-centered or problem-centered mind-set. They seek information immedi-ately applicable to their life tasks. Such a perspec-tive differs greatly from the pedagogicalassumptions. For children, learning is assumed toprepare pupils for something in the future. Theapplication of information is delayed. Thus, theteaching is not to specific application but ratheronly to impart raw knowledge.

Conversely, teachers using andragogical meth-ods must demonstrate the implementation of class-room precepts in a real-life situation. Teaching aneconomic principle is meaningless until students


understand how they can implement the concepton the job. Showing how to use what is beinglearned is as important as the actual process oflearning.

Most students in management want to use theirknowledge in the workplace. Thus, the orientationto learning of most students tends toward conceptsand activities that enhance understanding of theworkplace, its problems, and potential solutions.Learning about the workplace mandates theteacher use nonclassroom occurrences to furtherthe educational process (Bilimoria, 1998a). Only byincorporating the world outside the classroom canstudents gain a realistic look at the businessworld. Andragogical management educators seethe issues confronting businesses outside of aca-demia as integral to the learning inside theirclassroom.

Many organizational and business problemshave no single solution or correct answer. Someissues exist that will never be resolved (Lewis &Dehler, 2000). Traditional pedagogy has sought toavoid such nonresolution situations, because inthese the instructor, as a font of knowledge, nolonger has control over the classroom. However,like andragogy, management education tacklessuch issues with problemitization. In problemitiza-tion, a real issue is identified, the context thatsurrounds it is investigated, and possible out-comes are examined (Jabri, 1997). While welcome,solutions are not necessary. Instead, the process ofexamination is emphasized. Thus, the unresolv-able issue becomes the foundation for learningrather than an obstacle. The process may developmanagers who can resist the debilitating effect ofgroupthink, which causes individuals within orga-nizations to look at the same problem the sameway.

One of the most effective ways of showing man-agement students the challenges of the real worldis just-in-time teaching. In such a method, studentssolve actual problems for businesses (Watson &Temkin, 2000). The businesses define the issuesand the students must deliver for the businessmuch as they would for a client. Thus, just-in-timeteaching brings the actual issues and problemsorganizations face into the classroom and allowsstudents to address them.

Another real-world issue that many manage-ment students focus on is employability and get-ting a job in the field. Traditionally, such careerplanning has been avoided by education and in-stead left to a carrier services department. How-ever, because it is of central concern to manage-ment students, educators must address suchpotentially mundane issues. Indeed, teachers

should show how the concepts learned would helptheir students gain and retain employment (Lyon &Kirby, 2000). Such a concern by the teacher logi-cally flows from an andragogical focus on studentconcerns.

IMPLEMENTATION

Current thought in management education mesheswell with the four principles of andragogy. Theease of relations between the two areas speaks totheir similarities. Many management educatorsunconsciously work from an andragogical per-spective already. Such teachers recognize that stu-dents are able to control their own learning, bringa reservoir of experience to the class, learn be-cause of their life situation, and want to immedi-ately apply the material. In spite of such similari-ties, the leading edge of the managementeducation field has continued to grope for a way toexpress this different approach to learning. Peda-gogy has been the default choice even with itschild-centered baggage.

Much of what management education does onan everyday basis could be properly typed andra-gogy. Management educators devote themselvesto the teaching of adults and pre-adults, not chil-dren. The instructional strategies used work wellbecause the students are adults.

The reasons to use andragogy transcend thesimple choice of the proper word. Instead, an un-derstanding of andragogy explains why the learn-er-centered instructional strategies in a manage-ment classroom work. The reason why role-play isso effective in a management classroom stemsfrom its use of experience and its ability to giverelevance to knowledge. Problem-based learningworks because it allows adults to be self-directedin defining the issue to be examined and to applypast experience to a specific problem. In a similarfashion, service learning works because it allowsadults to express their self-concept as citizens andproviders to a real problem felt by the community.With a sound philosophical base, effective teach-ing methods can be analyzed for why they work,not just if they work. Without such a theoreticalbase, effectiveness of techniques can only be at-tributed to chance.

In addition, andragogy allows for managementeducators to institute traditional methods in newways. For example, often the mere suggestion oflecture will send students to sleep. However, ifmanagement educators approach a situation byasking what the students need to know, lecture canbe the best instructional strategy to use. If no stu-dents know how to create and analyze a mission


statement but understand its value to an organiza-tion, they will be more willing to listen to a lecture.Management teachers centered on andragogicalapproaches still use techniques such as lecture.However, the use of such strategies is based onstudents’ desire to learn the information, not theneed of instructors to hear themselves talk.

Additionally, all teachers need to remember thatandragogy is not the only philosophy for teaching.Indeed, many circumstances exist where it mightbe counterproductive. Freshman management stu-dents may be babes in the academic woods, andthus, a pedagogical philosophy is the best. How-ever, over the course of the collegiate career, thestudent gains knowledge and experience, and ed-ucators gradually blend pedagogy into andragogy.In the senior year, the student may indeed beready to work in the andragogical system.

Such a system gives management education an-other tool in its arsenal of teaching. It unifies theconcepts that management educators have workedwith under a singular title. Indeed, many manage-ment educators already practice andragogy with-out knowing. Recognition of andragogy and its as-sumptions regarding the adult student can providethe key to free the pedagogically imprisoned fieldof management education.

REFERENCES

Bailey, J. I. 2000. Students as clients in professional/client rela-tionships. Journal of Management Education, 24(3): 353–365.

Barbuto, Jr., J. E. 2000. Power and the changing environment.Journal of Management Education, 24(2): 288–296.

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Stephen Paul Forrest III(EdD, Oklahoma State Uni-versity) is a researcher atHertford College, Universityof Oxford. His inquiries cen-ter on the intellectual his-tory of adult learning appli-cations, of adult learningtheory, and cultural trans-formation in history. HIs cur-rent work focuses on cul-tural change in the IslandScots of Antrim during the1590s.

Tim Peterson (PhD, TexasA&M University) is an asso-ciate professor at TexasA&M. His work focuses onleadership, the scholarshipof teaching, and the applica-tion of IT to organizations.He has published in Perfor-mance Improvement Quar-terly, Journal of LeadershipStudies, Journal of Manage-ment Education, and Journalof Management Systems.


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Adult education - Andragogy