A critical self‐reflection of teaching “disability” to international business students

Abstract

Purpose

This paper has been developed to explore and discuss aspects related to teaching social justice, equity and inclusive understandings to business students in an Australian university, in particular within the area of disability inclusion in business settings. This paper seeks to describe the author's journey of reflection and re‐definition of disability and to serve as a case study for other academics interested in pursuing a similar path in other areas of tertiary business education.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper has adopted a self‐study research approach that, through the use of reflection in and on practice, seeks to improve the practice of teachers by understanding themselves as teachers, the purpose of which is to ultimately assist in improving the education.

Findings

This paper identifies some positive outcomes of using thirdspace pedagogical teaching practices. These outcomes include the opportunity for international and local students to develop deeper understandings with respect to cultural influences concerning the conceptualisation of contested concepts as well as the opportunity for tertiary educators to further develop their knowledge and understanding of cultural diversity within specific course content.

Practical implications

This paper recommends the need to support and encourage thirdspace pedagogical teaching as a valued and useful educational approach; the need for academic teaching to proactively seek ways to include both non‐western and western perspectives in teaching material; and the need for teaching academics to share and disseminate tacit teaching experiences of international students to the broader academy.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to increasing the understanding of tertiary sector pedagogical teaching practices, particularly within an internationalised curriculum setting.

Citation

McGrath, R. (2010), "A critical self‐reflection of teaching “disability” to international business students", Journal of International Education in Business, Vol. 3 No. 1/2, pp. 20-33. https://doi.org/10.1108/18363261011106867