Towards an Egalitarian Pedagogy for the Millennial Generation: A Reflection

Abstract

This is a first person account and a reflection. The chapter presents a preliminary outline of what I call an egalitarian pedagogy for the millennial generation (emulating Freire). The attempt is based on an ongoing reflection on the practice of teaching organizational informatics for about two decades, first in a business school and then, in an information school. I describe how I arrived at this position, and outline some underlying principles for such a pedagogy. The chapter points to possibilities for repurposing existing and emerging teaching practices towards this pedagogical perspective, and concludes by positioning the egalitarian perspective as a viable alternative.

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Sandeep Purao is on the faculty at the College of Information Sciences and Technology, Penn State University. His research focuses on the design, evolution and management of complex techno-organizational systems blending research methods from software engineering and organizational science. He designs and builds software artifacts in the process of research and also engages in empirical investigations. His work has been funded by national agencies such as the national science foundation, industry consortia, corporations and foundations. He has published in journals such as Communications of the ACM, various IEEE Transactions, ACM Computing Surveys, MIS Quarterly and Information Systems Research. He is actively engaged in understanding, improving and evaluating pedagogical practices for learning about organizational informatics. He currently serves as an Associate Editor for Information Systems Research, and has served on the editorial board of MIS Quarterly and Journal of the AIS among others. He is a co-chair for the WITS 2013 conference and the general chair for the ER 2014 conference. He holds a PhD in Management Information Systems from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He is a member of AIS, ACM and IEEE. Prior to his academic career, he was a practicing Chartered Accountant in Mumbai, India.