Unveiling systemic oppression in business education: Freire’s contribution to our quest for social change

Abstract

Management scholarship faces a challenge in maintaining relevance, as it struggles to influence and shape practices that address pressing societal problems such as social inequalities and environmental degradation. While critical management education has surfaced as a promising avenue for reshaping management practices, it has yet to realize its potential. This article aims to address this relevance crisis by examining the limits of critical management education, particularly through the lens of Freire’s contributions. By recognizing coloniality as a crucial institutional constraint that underlies various forms of oppression, we gain insights into the barriers hindering our relevance. Overseeing this constraint is troubling within business schools, often viewed as colonial endeavors. Consequently, these insights shed light on our circumstances and limitations in producing social change. In response, we suggest reframing critical management education as a form of critical performativity informed by Freire’s insights. In this light, knowledge serves as a catalyst for change, empowered by its relational, responsible, and provocative validity. By embracing Freire’s principles of thematic investigation, thematization, and problematization, we provide a comprehensive framework for understanding and addressing academic oppressions as a fundamental step in the quest for social change, offering valuable insights for future research and interventions in critical management education and beyond.