Teaching Business Ethics to Critical Students—Adopting the Stance of Political CSR

This paper provides ways of responding to critical students when teaching business ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR). A common premise of teaching pedagogy is to approach students from their “zone of proximal development” (Vygotsky 1978). To get an understanding of students’ critical prior conceptions, the ideal type of the “liberal communist” (Žižek 2008) is invoked as suggestive of how students might think about business ethics and CSR. Two pedagogical approaches are suggested to address students’ a priori scepticism of business ethics and CSR. First, a framework of political views on CSR is presented. Second, approaching CSR by means of “problem based learning” is discussed. Finally, the paper reflects on the role of the business ethics teacher in light of tendencies towards commodification of education in the global economy.