From advocacy to accountability in experiential learning practices

A core ethical value of many professions, especially those where power dynamics and potential for injury in practice exist, is minimising harm to those served. The same expectations, however, cannot be linked to the use of classroom-based experiential practices in management education settings. In this article, we explore ethical issues associated with experiential learning practices and the potential for student harm. In particular, we confront the issues of power dynamics, deception and informed consent in classroom exercises, the ability to opt-out of simulated experiences, and the facilitation skills required to responsibly manage and debrief the experience. We review the state of ethics attention in management education, and challenge the assumptions that experiential educators both know, and take steps to resolve, ethical issues associated with classroom exercises. We consider experiential practices of other professions, and discuss findings from a study of institutional declarations of ethical principles or policy statements related to experiential learning practices among Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business accredited business schools. Finding none of the latter, we argue that responsibility for student welfare in a learning environment requires values-based standards for the utilisation of classroom-based experiential learning practices and offer suggestions for establishing expectations with respect to various experiential approaches