Pluralism and “Conscientização” in the Business Classroom and beyond

Résumé En

We believe it is now time to decolonize the business curricula following earlier calls by critical management scholars, emancipatory pedagogues, and decolonial theorists. Decolonizing the business curricula means raising students’ awareness about the reproduction of colonialism (paternalism, grabbing, exploitation, hierarchization of people, territories, and knowledges) in business models and practices and the different injustices (racial, gender, environmental, territorial, epistemic) which spurs from that. Moreover, it aims at training students to imagine alternative (non-oppressive, non-exploitative, emancipatory, inclusive) ways of organizing and interacting with humans and non-humans. In this chapter, we would like to present our personal journeys to transform our management and CSR (corporate social responsibility) teaching and to contribute to the decolonization of our curricula. Our approach is founded on a non-dichotomous (theory/practice) ontology, pluralism, and conscientização, or critical consciousness developed by the Brazilian philosopher of education Paulo Freire.