Presentation title:   What Relevant Teaching Means in Practice
Speaker: Jean Bartunek , Boston College and Isabelle Yi Ren, Montclair State University
When: Oct. 13, 2021, 9:00-10:00 am, Beijing Time (UTC+8)
Where: Zoom 
Language: English
Record: https://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNTgxMjc0NzQ3Ng==.html

Summary of Presentation

Students often express a desire for “relevant” knowledge in their management classes. In this presentation we suggest that the stereotype of relevance as knowledge that is immediately practical and implementable is limited and impoverished.  In contrast, we present an expanded view of relevance that takes into account how the materials we teach are directly relevant to how students think about and feel about themselves, how much they may feel the need to protect themselves, and how much they feel affirmed and inspired.  We illustrate this with both academic and informal studies and attention to classroom experiences, and then suggest implications for teaching.   

Bio Sketches

Jean M. Bartunek (PhD., University of Illinois at Chicago) holds the Robert A., and Evelyn J. Ferris chair and is Professor of Management and Organization at Boston College.  She is a past president of the Academy of Management, from which she won the career distinguished service award.  She is also a past Dean of the Fellows of the Academy of management, as well as a Fellow of the British Academy of Management and of the Center for Evidence-Based Management.   She has served as an associate editor of the Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Learning and Education, and the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science.  Her primary interests center around academic-practitioner relationships and organizational change.   She has recently edited a book entitled Social Scientists Confronting Global Crises(Routledge, 2022).  

Isabelle Yi Ren (PhD., Boston College) is Assistant Professor of Management at the Feliciano School of Business, Montclair State University. She teaches Organizational Behavior, Leadership, and Negotiation at the undergraduate and graduate level. Her research interests center around how actors make sense and make use of the various cultural, status, and professional boundaries in organizations and the broader society. She investigates topics such as change mobilization and category mixing in the restaurant industry, knowledge translation across professional boundaries, and (bi)cultural identities in the workplace. She has published in the Asian American Journal of Psychology and Organization Studies, and coauthored several book chapters on academic-practitioner relations, negotiation and culture.