Call For Papers: Management Education in Africa

Abstract

Studying and advancing management education practice in Africa holds a lot of promise. Firstly, improving management education stands to contribute to enhancing productivity, economic development, and prosperity in Africa, vital aims for academics and practitioners in Africa and in the diaspora (Akoto & Akoto, 2018;Honig & Hjortsø, 2018;B. D. Zoogah, 2021). Secondly, documenting and disseminating African pedagogical practices stands to enrich global management education (Walsh, 2015). To paraphrase Barnard (2020), sharing insights from a unique "African vantage point" can open up dialog about pedagogical theory and practice. Highlighting non-Western ways of teaching can challenge global knowledge hierarchies, encourage reflexivity and benefit creative innovation in teaching and learning.However, the opportunities offered by management education in Africa remain dampened by historical constraints. The dominance of Western worldviews in management education undercuts the aspirations of African business schools through the disconnect of academic theory from local businesses and market practices, and by the imbalance of global-local themes in the curriculum (Lee et al., 2018). Concerns remain that "much African management education is simply repackaged material designed by professionals and scholars in advanced economies" (Honig & Hjortsø, 2018, p. 126). As such, it remains incommensurate to the challenge of "transformative nation building across all sectors of society" that is posed to management learners and graduates in many African countries (Nkomo, 2015, p. 242). Furthermore, the privileged position of Western points of view has contributed to African management education practices remaining "in the shadows" (Wall et al., 2023), obscuring their value and originality for the broader management community.Our aim for this special issue is to nurture the development of management education in Africa as a field of inquiry by providing a shared forum for dedicated research and scholarship. The special issue also aims to advance meaningful and effective management education that is sensitive to the unique 1245671J MEXXX10.