Student Participation in Business Education: A Backwards Agency

Abstract

Research in business education demonstrates that there is an incentive to increase student participation, but the theoretical definitions are imprecise and the operational limits have not been fully explored. This paper aims to understand how student agency happens in business education by analyzing and comparing the discourse and the practice of educational experiences based on active participation of students in Brazilian business courses. The research was qualitative and the information set was textual, formed by 23 reports of innovative experiences and the transcripts of four semi-structured interviews. The constructivist analysis led to the construction of categories demonstrating that there are: a mismatch between the discourse and the actions of educational institutions; misconceptions about the meaning of student agency; and lack of theoretical rigor in projects that aim to promote active student participation. Results reveal the emergence of a backwards agency: in spite of professing to encourage and promote active student participation, the actions undertaken by educational institutions were modest. The incorporation and dissemination of the concept of student agency in business education could contribute to the qualification of educational projects.