Call for Abstracts:

Journal of Management Education Themed Issue “Privilege in the Business Schools and the Management Classroom”

 

Building on the recent JME editorial by Lund Dean and Forray (2021) “Small Silences: Privilege, Power, and Advantage as Management Educators,” the incoming co-editors are developing a themed JME issue for early 2022 publication on a topic that urgently needs deeper consideration in the SOTL literature: privilege. This past year has intensified our collective understanding of numerous inequities in our societies. The devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the global Black Lives Matter social justice movement have highlighted the need to acknowledge and engage with various aspects of privilege. This work is essential for reconciliation and creating societies and organizations that are more just for all.

As Lund Dean and Forray point out, privilege is a dynamic and complex social construct created and maintained through everyday actions and interactions. Individuals may benefit from “having privilege” yet are simultaneously part of “systems of oppression” that create negative consequences for others. Individual characteristics such as gender, class, race and ability intersect to create (or limit) privilege. In particular, those with privilege are able to shape and contribute to conversations in ways that those without privilege cannot. As educators, we believe it is essential that we consider how privilege not only shapes our identities and practices but also those of our students.

At this precipice moment, we invite authors to engage JME readers in a conversation interrogating the multi-faceted nature of privilege. As the leading management education journal outlet devoted to experiential pedagogy research and practice, we encourage prospective authors to consider the various ways in which privilege influences and impacts our classes, curriculum, and business schools.

Potential topics include (but are not limited to):

  • In-depth engagement with any of the three themes identified in the 2021 editorial: Privilege as appreciation, Privilege as power and control, and Privilege as intersectionality.
  • Considerations of how privilege impacts learning outcomes, classroom management issues, internal institutional norms or policies, or other relevant dimensions of the learning environment.
  • Ways to think innovatively about, or experiences with, engaging discussions about privilege in the management classroom or business school among students or colleagues.
 
  • Empirical work that spotlights students’ lived experiences of privilege in the business school or what value students receive from training about privilege within their curricula.
  • First-person experiences with engaging with privilege within the classroom or within business school systems that extend extant literature-based, larger conversations about such experiences.
  • Innovations in and experiences with discussions about privilege at an institutional level that impact management classroom or the business school.
  • Key insights from established conversations about privilege in society and higher education with relevant applications to business schools from social psychology, sociology, history, education, communication, women’s studies, race relations, or other fields.
  • Theoretical or conceptual work that challenges any of the underlying assumptions of privilege.
  • Strategies for helping ourselves and students identify whose ideas and values have become dominant within our institutions.
  • Discussions about the impact of privilege in co-curricular and extra-curricular activities within business schools.
  • Structure reflections about the influence of global social movements such as decolonizing the business school and anti-racist initiatives for students, faculty, and staff.

Interested authors should prepare a 750 word (maximum) abstract detailing the topic they would like to explore, the most relevant literature within which the topic is grounded, and, most importantly, a brief discussion of the implications for teaching and learning if the paper is developed. The due date for submitting abstracts is now extended to April 30th, 2021 and should be sent to editor [at] mobts.org (. )Jennifer Leigh, Marissa Edwards, and AEs, serving as the themed issue’s action editorial team, will review all abstract submissions.

Authors of abstracts that the editors would like developed into full papers will be notified of this decision around May 15th, 2021. Full papers should be between 2500 and 3000 words (maximum) and submitted no later than July 1st, 2021. All manuscripts invited for submission to the themed issue will be sent for blind peer review to members of JME’s Editorial Review Board.

Topic development opportunities

Interested authors are invited to discuss potential topics with the JME editors prior to submitting abstracts. Queries may be sent to editor [at] mobts.org (, )or if accepted, authors participating in the vMOBTS-USA Conference are welcome to attend sessions with the editors. Additionally, authors can set up other times to discuss ideas on an as-needed basis.