How can we conceptualise the ways in which Business School academics view signature pedagogy? A social ecology approach

Abstract

Signature pedagogy raises questions relating to the nature of disciplinary knowledge in Higher Education (HE) and the ways in which academics approach teaching and learning. Coined by Shulman (2005), signature pedagogy has been adopted by those who see the delivery of degree programmes as being closely aligned to professional practice and different to other disciplines. The aim of this paper is to report on how academics in a Business School approach teaching and learning within the context of Shulman's signature pedagogy thesis. The findings challenge the idea of a narrowly-defined signature pedagogy within the Business School and report on a range of views on how to deliver the curriculum, with a minority favouring a traditional pedagogic approach. The findings also point to three dimensions within the curriculum, which are described as prescribed, partnership and parochial. In order to facilitate the conceptualisation of this investigation, the findings and discussion are contextualised within Bronfenbrenner's (1979) social ecology systems theory.