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2025 AOM Annual Meeting

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20382: Challenges of Teaching Sustainability to Managers: Pedagogy, Ideology and Epistemology

Friday, July 25, 2025
10:30 - 12:00 CEST (GMT+2)
Location: Copenhagen Business School: Solbjerg Plads- SP 213
Session Type: PDW (workshop)
Orientation: Teaching,Practice,International
Shareable link: https://cdmcd.co/wjAm4L
Management educators and curriculum designers have recently faced with the challenge of finding new pedagogies that help students develop skills and attitudes for designing organizations and business strategies that promote economic development without sacrificing future generations' ability to meet their needs. This sustainability agenda has generated genuine interest in educating business students and practicing managers in developing sustainable business strategies, including new organizational forms such as hybrid and social entrepreneurial enterprises. In this PDW, we explore the practical, theoretical, and philosophical challenges of teaching sustainability and sustainable business strategy to MBA students and practicing managers. There are six significant pedagogical challenges involved in teaching sustainability: 1. the Ideological nature of sustainability debate, 2—the transdisciplinary nature of the topic of sustainability, 3. Sustainability is a wicked problem, 4. Cultural diversity in the classroom, 5. Conflicting views of the need for sustainability education across various business disciplines and 6. Epistemological difficulties. In this PDW we address all of these pedagogical challenges by introducing several frameworks for understanding and addressing issues related to business sustainability. The first one of these frameworks called the 6E framework is introduced to gain a comprehensive understanding of business sustainability. There are six dimensions to this sustainability framework. They are namely, expectancy, ethics, economics, environment, energy and essential materials. This comprehensive framework helps teachers address both the pedagogical challenges stated above. One of the most essential characteristics of our approach is bringing together diverse fields such as social psychology, ethics, philosophy, environmental science, strategy, organizational behavior, economics, materials science, energy technology, and climate science. Finally, we discuss the importance of developing a social entrepreneurial mindset in students and practicing managers to carry forward the sustainability agenda passionately.