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

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It’s Called Andragogy

STEPHEN PAUL FORREST III
Hertford College, University of Oxford

TIM O. PETERSON
Texas A&M University

Despite radical changes in teaching assumptions, management educators have continued

to use the archaic term pedagogy to describe their work. The word pedagogy refers
specifically to children and assumptions for teaching children. Thus, pedagogy does not
encompass the needs of adults common in management classrooms today. To ensure
congruence with the emerging management teaching methods, we advocate adoption of
the term andragogy. Such a word focuses on the adult learner and creation of an
independent, adaptable individual. Underpinning andragogy are four assumptions
regarding learning: a self-directing self-concept; use of experience; a readiness to learn;
and a performance-centered orientation to learning. Management educators already use
techniques that take advantage of these andragogical assumptions. Adoption of the term
andragogy would align the philosophy of management educators with the current
dynamic instructional strategies already in use.
........................................................................................................................................................................

Change is afoot in management education. Old
models of a management professor lecturing from
the front of a classroom no longer meet the needs
of the ever-shifting world. As business structures
become flatter, individuals within groups must be-
come more self-sufficient and better able to solve
their own problems. The field of management ed-
ucation has responded to such changes with in-
creasingly dynamic instructional strategies and
methods that seek to better prepare individuals for
the business world.
Even with these dynamic changes, it is ironic
that 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 the
ancient Greeks utilized to describe the education
of children. Lackluster linguistics has required
stretching pedagogy so that the term encompasses
all education. Despite this modern mutilation of
meaning, the term pedagogy still retains its an-
cient core assumptions about teaching children.
Yet, management education does not seek to work
with children; it attempts to educate adults and
pre-adults. Thus, the child-oriented term pedagogy
We would like to thank Claudette M. Peterson for her thoughtful
and insightful comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript.
113
does not seem to fit within the context of an article
examining management learning choices.
The authors of the inaugural article advocated
incorporating student feelings and interests in the
learning 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 to
be learned and what the instructor knows (Notting-
ham Andragogy Group, 1983). Pedagogy’s philoso-
phy ignores what students bring to the learning
experience in favor of predetermined course con-
tent (Knowles, 1980). The neglect for the needs and
desires of the learner does not mesh with the new
approaches surfacing in management education.
However, fault for such word choice does not lie
with the authors, nor is it limited to them. The
article displays the symptoms of a greater problem
within the field of management education. Man-
agement education may have started a shift to a
more learner-centered approach, but using “peda-
gogy” shows that the field’s mind-set still views
students as dependent children rather than inde-
pendent adults. In fact, all issues of the Journal of
Management 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-
114 Academy of Management Learning & Education
dent contributions and actions into the learning
experience. Management educators have moved
beyond the philosophy of pedagogy to a more
learner-centered outlook, but they still use the
child-oriented term to describe their work. Al-
though management education has made signifi-
cant changes in its philosophical approach and
instructional strategies, few educators understand
why the new methods are more effective than the
old. In this situation, the management educator
understands that the educational technique works
but does not understand why it works. Much like a
business that doesn’t understand why its business
model is effective, lack of comprehension stifles
ingenuity and innovation.
Management education may have started
a shift to a more learner-centered
approach, but using “pedagogy” shows
that the field’s mind-set still views
students as dependent children rather
than independent adults.
Thus, the field exists as a paradox. On one hand,
teachers yearn to find methods that incorporate
students’ interests. This inclusion has occurred be-
cause management educators have responded to
the calls to produce students who can apply what
they know. Modern management requires the prac-
tical implementation of skills learned, not regurgi-
tation of principles. Without implementation
knowledge, 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 teaching
methods which are focused on learning for appli-
cation and work in the adult world.
In the current situation, the term pedagogy acts
like a shackle holding management education to
past notions of learning. Using pedagogy uncon-
sciously binds management educators to princi-
ples of learning developed for children. In the face
of such imprisonment, employers require, students
yearn for, and instructors attempt to construct new
ways of helping future workers learn both the the-
ory and practicality of management. Liberation
from the old notions might lie in a single word:
andragogy. Differing from pedagogy, the term an-
dragogy assumes that students are the principle
March
players in the teaching–learning transaction. Man-
agement educators must focus on implementing
andragogy and an andragogical mind-set in order
to be congruent with the field’s new educational
direction.
In the current situation, the term
pedagogy acts like a shackle holding
management education to past notions of
learning.
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 for
leading. In modern times, this has been modified
to mean teaching, or instruction. However, similar-
ities between the two terms end with a common
linguistic root. “Peda” translates as child, making
pedagogy the art and science of teaching children
(Simpson & Weiner, 1989). However, “andra” is a
form of the word adult. Thus, andragogy literally
means the art and science of teaching adults. In
the andragogical sense, adults are those individ-
uals who have taken on adult roles in society,
whether they are the 16-year-old mother or the
87-year-old retiree. Darkenwald and Merriam
(1982) posit that an adult is someone who has as-
sumed the primary social role of worker, spouse, or
parent and has left the principal social role of
full-time student that children and adolescents
hold. In simple terms, pedagogy is oriented to
teaching children and their characteristics. By
comparison, andragogy is dedicated to teaching
humans who perform socially productive roles and
have assumed primary responsibility for their own
lives. Thus, while pedagogy focuses on issues of
children, the andragogical mind-set puts primacy
on the issues of application of knowledge to real
life.
The term andragogy dates back to 19th century
Europe. In Germany, Alexander Kapp developed
the term to denote a changed view that adults
learned 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 used
the term in France, Yugoslavia, and Holland.
Contemporary use of the term developed from
the works of Malcolm Knowles. Though first intro-
duced in 1968, it came into widespread use in 1970
with Knowles’ publishing of The Modern Practice
of Adult Education: Andragogy Versus Pedagogy.
2006 Forrest III and Peterson 115

Knowles’ use of andragogy unified the adult edu-
cation field of study by providing a rallying point
and separating the adult education principles from
those of children.
While accepted by many teachers, andragogy
was refined based on criticism from other adult
educators. Knowles had stated that a teacher was
either pedagogical or andragogical (Knowles,
1977). However, educators described situations
where Knowles’ andragogy was used in pre-adult
populations with effectiveness. For this reason,
Knowles (1980) revised the relationship between
the two terms in the 1980 edition of his book. In the
new edition of The Modern Practice of Adult Edu-
cation, he defined the relationship as a spectrum
ranging from the subject-centered pedagogy to the
learner-centered andragogy. Table 1 shows the un-
derlying assumptions for these two different phi-
losophies.
Neither andragogy nor pedagogy is a teaching
technique. Instead they are the philosophy that a
teacher looks to for guidance. Both philosophies
examine the foundational goals of teaching. By
comparison, the term instructional strategy de-
notes the methods whereby specific knowledge is
conveyed within the philosophical framework.
Thus, instructional strategies are neither pedagog-
ical nor andragogical; both philosophies can and
do use all strategies. However, the way pedagogy
uses such strategies differs greatly from an andra-
gogical implementation. Thus, management edu-
cators who move to andragogical teaching may
find that they use many of their old instructional
strategies in new and different ways. Changing
from a pedagogical lecture to an andragogical lec-
ture does not require writing new speaking notes,
but rather a new approach to when and how an
instructor should use the lecture method. Figure 1
shows the link between philosophy and instruc-
tional strategies.
When the term was introduced in the field of
adult education, andragogy solved the problem of
conflicted terms and methods. Similar to manage-
ment education, adult education faced a conflict of
learner-centered methods and the subject-centered
assumptions defined by the term pedagogy. Meth-
ods may change but if the paradigm that the
teacher works in does not shift, effective instruc-
tion is difficult. For example, use of a noncollabo-
rative, multiple-choice test to assess interpersonal
skills is counterproductive as well as highly ironic.
Implementation of instructional methods and the
teaching assumptions need to match. If manage-
ment educators wish to use methods in a learner-
centered way, they need to have more than good
intentions; they need a learner-centered philo-
sophical outlook. The practice of an andragogical
teaching approach recognizes and solves this
problem by assembling a learner-centered para-
digm congruent with learner-centered methods.
A pedagogical teaching paradigm is predicated
upon the concept of dependency. Students are as-
sumed to know little. Thus, the instructors provide
pupils with the necessary information. Students do
not 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 the
instructor. Such a philosophy is consistent with
Palmer’s (1998) objectivist myth of finding the truth.
By comparison, the andragogical teaching para-
digm assumes the relationship between the
teacher and the student is similar to that of trav-
eler and guide (Knowles, 1977). The student knows
the destination and has prior experiences in trav-
eling. The teacher provides direction and allows
students to make use of their experiences and seek

TABLE 1
Pedagogical Andragogical Learning Assumption
Pedagogy Andragogy

Self-Concept
Learner’s Experience
Readiness to Learn
Learning Orientation
Learners are dependent on
external sources such as an
instructor to assess and
provide their needs.
Learners bring little experience
to the educational activity
and thus experience is not
used in the learning process.
The need to know develops
from external forces; often an
instructor mandating the
learning process that should
take place.
Subject or Teacher Centered
Learners are aware of themselves and their
needs and bring this knowledge to the
educational activity.
Learners bring a wealth of usable experience
and knowledge to the educational activity,
thus experience is used in the learning
process.
The need to know develops from an internal
need to better address roles and
responsibilities the learner faces.
Problem or Performance Centered
116 Academy of Management Learning & Education March

FIGURE 1
Philosophy and Instructional Strategies

new information. However, in andragogy, the in- 6. Adults are driven by intrinsic motivation to
structor would not be considered simply a con- learn.
veyer of information. They are mentors and guides
However, these last two assumptions have been
who help the students develop. For this reason,
accepted to varying degrees by educators and are
andragogy is considered a learner-centered edu-
often not included with the original core four. The
cational paradigm. The final goal of andragogy
teaching techniques used in management educa-
develops humans capable of adaptation, free in-
tion already display an understanding of andra-
quiry, and self-sufficiency. The instructor becomes
gogical assumptions, but the field as a whole has
less important to the personal learning of the stu-
yet to incorporate a true andragogical mind-set.
dent as the educational process continues. This
The omission of andragogy in favor of pedagogy
outlook is constant with Palmer’s (1998) community
hobbles the emerging learner-centered focus in
of truth.
management education.
Andragogy’s underpinnings exist in a set of as-
sumptions regarding the teaching–learning trans-
action. Knowles (1977) originally defined four such
ANDRAGOGICAL ASSUMPTIONS
assumptions:
Self-Directed Learners
1. Adults have a self-concept of a self-directing
personality; Unlike children, adult learners are not defined by
2. Adults bring a wealth of experience to the their roles as students but rather by the various
learning process; identities they must use to live their lives. For
3. Adults come to the learning process ready to
learn; and example, one of the first questions often asked of a
4. Adults are oriented toward immediate appli- child is “What grade are you in?” The inquiry spe-
cation of learned knowledge. cifically focuses on the year as a student. The foun-
dation for the question is the assumption in West-
Knowles (1984, 1989) later added two addition as-
ern society that children must be students. Adults
sumptions:
live with a different set of standards. Instead of
5. Adults need to know the reason for learning assuming that they are students, society sees an
something; adult as a worker, a provider, or a member of the
2006 Forrest III and Peterson
community. Thus, the first question for an adult
often addresses the employment of the person or
familial makeup.
Adults incorporate such an assumption into their
self-concepts. The student or learner parts of their
identities 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-directing
individuals.
An adult learner may work as an employee, may
shoulder parental responsibility, and may accept
the duties of a citizen. As adults voluntarily choose
to enter the educational world, they do not leave
these other identities behind. Rather, they bring all
of 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 educational
experience.
Teachers who accept the andragogical assump-
tions see such learner self-direction as valid and
natural. Andragogical educators respect the adult
learners they teach as individuals with a desire to
personally direct learning. For example, allowing
adult learners in a management class to pick their
own readings based on the competence they want
to develop during the semester would be a good
example of self-directed learning. However, stu-
dents are often wary of such an open teaching
philosophy. Adult learners have often faced years
of pedagogical schooling that has placed them in
dependant roles that would threaten an adult self-
directing self-concept. These past experiences can
make adult learners wary of new educational ex-
periences (Kidd, 1959). Andragogically oriented
teachers must overcome this challenge and show
students that a self-directing persona is valid, ac-
ceptable, and often needed in the learning process.
The andragogical assumption regarding the
self-directing self-concept has deep roots in man-
agement education. The belief that students
should be considered partners in the educational
process is one of the most prominent concepts in
the field (Bilimoria, 2000). Indeed, many manage-
ment teaching methods develop from this basic
assumption that students should have an active
role in the classroom.
Management educators already claim that the
nurturing of the learner’s self-direction through
student partnerships in the education process
should take as many forms as possible. Teachers
can work with students in order to design a course,
implement instructional strategies, and decide on
assessment methods. In such a system, communi-
117
cation between the instructor and the learner
should flow freely. One idea to facilitate such a
process implements a student ombudsperson. This
student 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 the
teacher. Communication regarding instructional
content and methods allows students to become
partners in the management education process
rather than passive receptors. The concept of in-
creased communication between the learner and
the instructor readies the students for work in the
flatter organizational structures that are emerging
in the world of business.
In the andragogical model, such active students
allow the teacher to help students develop as total
humans. Such a total human concept transcends
only conveying information. Traits such as leader-
ship require more than knowledge of skills; they
require characteristics such as conviction and will
(Gallos, 1997). Teachers cannot teach conviction.
However, they can empower students to develop
such 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 by
respecting the students’ abilities to direct their
own lives and educational endeavors. Thus, the
andragogical classroom mirrors the world outside
of the school where students must make basic eth-
ical and moral choices that will impact themselves
and the organizations in which they work.
In addition to trust, an andragogical manage-
ment teacher, like a good manager, attempts to
cultivate self-awareness in students. People who
understand themselves may more effectively help
others. Similarly, good mangers need to under-
stand themselves in order to effectively help others
(Caproni & Arias, 1997). However, development of
such self-awareness can only occur when the
teacher sees the students as having the ability to
internalize the information, reflect on it, and make
changes within themselves. When management
educators believe students can actively assess
themselves, they may facilitate students’ aware-
ness of their own strengths and shortcomings
(Rivera, 1999).
The emphasis on diverse roles that breed the
self-awareness and self-assessment in students
has not always been a high priority. Traditionally,
educators often think of such roles as distinct and
separate from the learning process. Without a
doubt, the organizational context and positions of
a class and a workplace are different even if a
management class may mimic a management sit-
118 Academy of Management Learning & Education
uation (Pitt & Simms, 1998). Being a student is not
the 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 will
seek to incorporate such identities into class. One
way of accomplishing the integration places man-
agement students in the elementary schools in or-
der to teach business concepts to grade school
children (Falkenberg, Russell, & Ricker, 2000). By
teaching children, management students need to
distill basic ideas and make them understandable
to the very young. Thus, by assuming the role of
both teacher and elder, management students
must review their own knowledge and find what
information must be understood. Such a situation
utilizes the status and roles of adult students in the
educational process rather than avoiding them.
The technique also readies students for a world
where, increasingly, the best leaders are found to
be teachers (Tichy, 1997).
Experience
Andragogy is predicated on the belief that during
the span of living, humans accumulate experience.
The collective experiences become an individual’s
identity and from that foundation, humans create
their self-image. Thus, in a very real way, adults
are what they have done. From an andragogical
perspective, education builds on, examines, and
expands the base of experience. Students bring
applicable knowledge and skills to the learning
process. They seek to fill the gaps of knowledge in
their 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 experience
base.
Because andragogical teachers assume learners
have experiences, use of such experiential knowl-
edge is necessary for the education process to be
effective. Experience becomes a textbook. Teach-
ers strive to relate the content of the class to the
experiences of the learner, and thereby, make the
teaching relevant to the student. To not use such a
reservoir of experience would waste the learners’
potential expertise. Involving experience makes
learners active participants in the education pro-
cess. They no longer assume a passive role. Such
an active student allows a teacher to further break
out of the role as conveyer of knowledge and be-
March
come a guide and mentor. Indeed, management
educators who begin to utilize an andragogical
outlook may find students demanding less recita-
tion of raw information and more knowledge
placed in the context of experience.
Congruent with the andragogical philosophy,
management educators recognize that students
can use their experiences to further the educa-
tional process. Indeed, various exercises have
been developed to utilize and extend what the
student already knows by way of experience (Neal,
Schor, & Sabiers, 1998; Mello, 2000; Waddock, 1999).
The attractiveness of using experience lies in the
ease with which students can tackle new informa-
tion. Instead of attempting to build something com-
pletely new, teachers make connections between
the new information and what students already
know (Sankowsky, 1998). In a time organizations
demand quick adaptation, cultivating experiential
techniques gives students another method to cope
with a dynamic world.
Additionally, teaching using experience can be
extremely effective in a classroom with a range of
ages. Shaw and Fisher (1999) remarked that 18- and
19-year-olds did not have the sufficient experien-
tial knowledge to make practical application of
knowledge 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 introduces
future managers to the realities of dealing with
diverse groups, a commonality in the business
world.
Use of experience also facilitates the student’s
role as an active participant. Researchers have
widely acknowledged that learning is enhanced
when student experience is used in the classroom
(Mallinger, 1998). Indeed, students who are active
and feel their experience being utilized have a
reason to be engaged in the learning process. They
may 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 of
experience in the learning process by providing
situations that allow the students to reflect on oc-
currences. One method that integrates reflection
on experience and the learning process in a formal
educational setting occurs through role-play (Cu-
pit & Isles, 1999). In this teaching method, students
assume a role in a fictional setting in order to use
their knowledge and skills (Cousins, 1999). The
classroom becomes a laboratory where prior expe-
riences and learned knowledge come together.
Students can act, see the results of what they do,
2006 Forrest III and Peterson
reflect, revise their assumptions, and attempt fur-
ther implementation. As an additional bonus, the
reflection process helps the more experienced stu-
dents to see what they already know and where
they need further information.
Readiness to Learn
As previously mentioned, adults have a variety of
identities apart from being a student. Society has
thrust the roles of citizen, parent, friend, worker,
and leader on to them. Each role has certain re-
quirements and responsibilities for the adult. From
the adult’s perspective, responding to the needs of
these identities requires learning to become better
prepared to fulfill the obligations. Thus, adults will
learn about concepts that have applicability to
them. Conversely they will find little interest in
ideas that are not relevant to them. Life roles de-
termine an adult’s readiness to learn.
For example, a single, childless adult may have
little reason to learn about care for infants. No
obvious reason exists for them to exert effort in
learning something that may or may not be appli-
cable. However, if they are expecting to become a
parent or caregiver for an infant, such knowledge
becomes relevant. The readiness to learn has
changed, and the adult may want to find out about
the area of knowledge. Similarly a newly promoted
manager may have had little interest in learning
about giving performance feedback when holding
a nonmanagement position. However, such an in-
dividual can be eager to learn such information
because the knowledge has relevance once the
individual is promoted to a management position.
Thus, teachers of adults must be able to contex-
tualize issues that need to be learned. When no
immediate reason to learn a subject exists, teach-
ers must demonstrate the importance of such infor-
mation. In addition, teachers using andragogical
approaches must be willing to modify class sched-
ules to incorporate issues the students find impor-
tant. For example not to talk of crisis management
in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11,
2001 would neglect heightened student interests.
Such a discussion could demand a reordering of
the scheduled teaching exercises. However, from
an andragogical perspective, the effort involved is
the natural response to a teachable moment and
promotes an unparalleled opportunity for learning.
Management educators using the andragogical
approach see the unexpected not as an interfering
problem but as an invaluable possibility.
Management education has addressed the con-
cept of readiness to learn in different ways. For
example, management educators have long seen
119
the need to make things relevant to their students.
Without relevance, students feel little reason to
engage in the learning process. With relevance,
students become active, willing participants in
their own education (Bilimoria, 1998a; Kolb, 1999;
Ryland, 1998). Teachers who attempt to find what is
important to their students will find learners who
willingly participate (Barclay & York, 1996).
In crafting programs relevant to students, man-
agement educators often seek issues analogous to
business situations. Because most students learn
in order to more effectively work, they are ready to
learn about concepts that they can immediately
apply in the workplace. It can be a challenge for an
instructor to develop ways of showing how theo-
retical ideas can be actively applied (Barbuto,
2000). However, even activities that approximate
real-life situations will help students; learners can
still use the precepts of an activity, even if they do
not directly apply to their situation (Egri, 1999).
In order to utilize the students’ readiness to
learn, teachers need to create environments where
student interests are free to surface. To accomplish
such atmospheres, the teacher may construct a
matrix of inquiry, where students’ concerns regard-
ing what knowledge they need can be expressed
with ease (French, 1997). One effective way of do-
ing this is the role-play, where students can see in
a nonthreatening situation how concepts apply to
them (Kern, 2000; Silver, Howard, & Clouse, 1999).
Another method, mentoring, links students and
professionals. This relationship enables students
to see how classroom learning applies in the busi-
ness world (Schlee, 2000). Through such a process,
students can expand their topics of interest and
thus the areas of intellectual exploration.
Orientation to Learning
Closely related to readiness to learn is the orien-
tation to learning. From the andragogical point of
view, adults learn because they need to address
issues in their lives. Thus, they enter the learning
process 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 pedagogical
assumptions. For children, learning is assumed to
prepare pupils for something in the future. The
application of information is delayed. Thus, the
teaching is not to specific application but rather
only to impart raw knowledge.
Conversely, teachers using andragogical meth-
ods must demonstrate the implementation of class-
room precepts in a real-life situation. Teaching an
economic principle is meaningless until students
120 Academy of Management Learning & Education
understand how they can implement the concept
on the job. Showing how to use what is being
learned is as important as the actual process of
learning.
Most students in management want to use their
knowledge in the workplace. Thus, the orientation
to learning of most students tends toward concepts
and activities that enhance understanding of the
workplace, its problems, and potential solutions.
Learning about the workplace mandates the
teacher use nonclassroom occurrences to further
the educational process (Bilimoria, 1998a). Only by
incorporating the world outside the classroom can
students gain a realistic look at the business
world. Andragogical management educators see
the issues confronting businesses outside of aca-
demia as integral to the learning inside their
classroom.
Many organizational and business problems
have no single solution or correct answer. Some
issues exist that will never be resolved (Lewis &
Dehler, 2000). Traditional pedagogy has sought to
avoid such nonresolution situations, because in
these the instructor, as a font of knowledge, no
longer has control over the classroom. However,
like andragogy, management education tackles
such issues with problemitization. In problemitiza-
tion, a real issue is identified, the context that
surrounds it is investigated, and possible out-
comes are examined (Jabri, 1997). While welcome,
solutions are not necessary. Instead, the process of
examination is emphasized. Thus, the unresolv-
able issue becomes the foundation for learning
rather than an obstacle. The process may develop
managers who can resist the debilitating effect of
groupthink, which causes individuals within orga-
nizations to look at the same problem the same
way.
One of the most effective ways of showing man-
agement students the challenges of the real world
is just-in-time teaching. In such a method, students
solve actual problems for businesses (Watson &
Temkin, 2000). The businesses define the issues
and the students must deliver for the business
much as they would for a client. Thus, just-in-time
teaching brings the actual issues and problems
organizations face into the classroom and allows
students 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 career
planning 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 such
potentially mundane issues. Indeed, teachers
March
should show how the concepts learned would help
their students gain and retain employment (Lyon &
Kirby, 2000). Such a concern by the teacher logi-
cally flows from an andragogical focus on student
concerns.
IMPLEMENTATION
Current thought in management education meshes
well with the four principles of andragogy. The
ease of relations between the two areas speaks to
their similarities. Many management educators
unconsciously work from an andragogical per-
spective already. Such teachers recognize that stu-
dents are able to control their own learning, bring
a 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 management
education field has continued to grope for a way to
express this different approach to learning. Peda-
gogy has been the default choice even with its
child-centered baggage.
Much of what management education does on
an everyday basis could be properly typed andra-
gogy. Management educators devote themselves
to the teaching of adults and pre-adults, not chil-
dren. The instructional strategies used work well
because the students are adults.
The reasons to use andragogy transcend the
simple 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 is
so effective in a management classroom stems
from its use of experience and its ability to give
relevance to knowledge. Problem-based learning
works because it allows adults to be self-directed
in defining the issue to be examined and to apply
past experience to a specific problem. In a similar
fashion, service learning works because it allows
adults to express their self-concept as citizens and
providers 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 theoretical
base, effectiveness of techniques can only be at-
tributed to chance.
In addition, andragogy allows for management
educators to institute traditional methods in new
ways. For example, often the mere suggestion of
lecture will send students to sleep. However, if
management educators approach a situation by
asking what the students need to know, lecture can
be the best instructional strategy to use. If no stu-
dents know how to create and analyze a mission
2006 Forrest III and Peterson
statement but understand its value to an organiza-
tion, they will be more willing to listen to a lecture.
Management teachers centered on andragogical
approaches still use techniques such as lecture.
However, the use of such strategies is based on
students’ desire to learn the information, not the
need of instructors to hear themselves talk.
Additionally, all teachers need to remember that
andragogy is not the only philosophy for teaching.
Indeed, many circumstances exist where it might
be counterproductive. Freshman management stu-
dents may be babes in the academic woods, and
thus, a pedagogical philosophy is the best. How-
ever, over the course of the collegiate career, the
student gains knowledge and experience, and ed-
ucators gradually blend pedagogy into andragogy.
In the senior year, the student may indeed be
ready to work in the andragogical system.
Such a system gives management education an-
other tool in its arsenal of teaching. It unifies the
concepts that management educators have worked
with 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 provide
the key to free the pedagogically imprisoned field
of management education.
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Stephen Paul Forrest III Tim Peterson (PhD, Texas

(EdD, Oklahoma State Uni- A&M University) is an asso-
versity) is a researcher at ciate professor at Texas
Hertford College, University A&M. His work focuses on
of Oxford. His inquiries cen- leadership, the scholarship
ter on the intellectual his- of teaching, and the applica-
tory of adult learning appli- tion of IT to organizations.
cations, of adult learning He has published in Perfor-
theory, and cultural trans- mance Improvement Quar-
formation in history. HIs cur- terly, Journal of Leadership
rent work focuses on cul- Studies, Journal of Manage-
tural change in the Island ment Education, and Journal
Scots of Antrim during the of Management Systems.
1590s.