ABSTRACT
A college education is arguably a delivery mechanism for shaping young people into wisdom keepers for the future. Universities philosophically purport to mediate between the needs of today’s students and the global social needs of tomorrow’s world. Paradoxically, popular curricula are often the ones advertising the ability to ready students for the job market. Similarly, students report wanting “practical” courses, and colleges often fall to the temptation of treating students as a customer who knows best. And while some technical training matters, the complex realities of today’s world require everyone to become responsible citizens of tomorrow, as well as participants in today. Therefore, higher education has a responsibility for expanding an individual’s capacity for continuous development, not just building literacy in a field. This chapter seeks to empower educators and curricular designers with a paradigm, framework, and resources for re-imagining undergraduate business programs in particular. The framework emerges from a seven-year, multi-stakeholder, action research project that began at a liberal arts college in the American south. The implication for education is the need to shift our paradigm from teaching to empowering.
