Critical Reflection in Executive Education: Opportunities for Public Universities

• In Event: Professions Education and the Public Good — Paper Session

Abstract

Scholars have long advocated that institutions of higher education in the U.S. have a responsibility to prepare their graduates to be good citizens engaged in sustaining a strong democratic society. Although much of the research on public universities and good citizenship focuses on undergraduate attention, less attention has been paid to the role of public universities in fostering civic-mindedness in their non-degree executive education programs. This paper explores the use of critical reflection to facilitate the integration of civic-mindedness into an executive education pilot program at a large public university in the south Atlantic region. The study reveals insights about the evolution of program participant thinking, and offers some suggestions for adoption/adaptation of critical reflection in other executive-level programs.

Author

• Shahron Williams Van Rooij, George Mason University