Abstract
[[Preparing for this JME Special Issue]] This paper addresses several questions of the Special Issue, such as "What does it mean to be a Management Educator? How has our profession evolved? And how might it look in the future?" through the lens of the JME publications of Peter B. Vaill, a long-time, distinguished shaper of JME for most of its 50 years. Vaill noted that the early years of Management education were incredibly exciting as breakthroughs piled up regularly and school of management were where the “action” was in the 1970s. As the field became more scientific, many innovations continued, but almost exclusively those taking a positivist and objectivist form. Vaill’s writings don’t simply call for a return to the good old days, but see even greater and richer advances coming from, for example, centering learning on the experience of the practice of the action taker and emboldening her or him to act courageously. The next 50 years of JME are yet to be fashioned, but the future proposed here would include Management faculty modeling courage by conducting classes that are emergent, so that the professor and students both learn in the moment. Management faculty would know their field as well as doctors do after years of education, residency, and fellowship. They would then continue to practice management in some way to understand and mold this dynamic field that they teach. Such a practice would result in far more interactive classes where students have greater appreciation for the “feeling, judgment, sense, proportion, balance, and appropriateness” (Barnard, 1938, p. 235) of management and ideally develop a greater passion for Management.
