ABSTRACT
One major key to the success of the Team Academy (TA) pedagogical approach is the engagement of the students into action in order that the learning by doing process can unfold (Kolb, 1984). The purpose of this research is to study the pedagogical factors that favour the students’ motivation to be and stay in action in such a programme. The selected conceptual framework for motivation is the Self-Determination Theory of Ryan & Deci (2017) that was found relevant because it links the individual's autonomous motivation to his social environment. The empirical study is based on the case of the Bachelor Team Entrepreneur of EM Strasbourg Business School (University of Strasbourg), launched in 2011 on the TA model. Qualitative semi-structured interviews representing a diverse audience from alumni and students drove us to two major results. Firstly, becoming autonomous is a difficult learning process where the tension between a student's freedom and the pedagogical frame obligations is central. Sometimes, freedom seems to foster action and sometimes to slow it down. Secondly, being autonomous for the students means taking full responsibility for their choices and the consequences of being or not in action. Those results lead to three pedagogical challenges for an action learning-based programme. The first challenge directly addresses the essential nature of pedagogical support on both action and reflexivity and highlights the risk that the pedagogical framework focuses on one aspect to the detriment of the other, especially in underestimating the role of action guidance. The second pedagogical challenge is posed by the existence of periods of inaction that should be accepted as a relevant experience in the learning process. Finally, the third challenge raises the question of supporting student autonomy by addressing a dynamic balance to be found between laissez-faire and control/constraint of the pedagogical framework.
