Developing Pedagogical Competence: Issues and Implications for Marketing Education

Competence in pedagogy and research is the sine qua non of marketing educators’ careers. However, there is evidence in the literature that marketing academics focus more on and are more competent in research than teaching. This imbalance, in a majority of instances, can be traced back to doctoral education. Doctoral programs in marketing are designed to prepare students for becoming successful marketing professors. An important component of becoming a successful professor is learning how to teach effectively. Yet doctoral programs fall short of providing adequate pedagogical training. Consequently, marketing educators, from their doctoral days through their professorial careers, have a responsibility to continuously work on their competence in teaching. However, how can marketing educators in general and marketing doctoral students in particular develop pedagogical competence (PC)? In this article, the authors deconstruct PC into five components: content knowledge (or knowledge of subject matter), knowledge of pedagogical approaches, course management capability, classroom management capability, and student management capability. Next, they discuss how individuals can develop PC and the implications of PC for marketing education. Specifically, the authors discuss issues and implications for doctoral students, doctoral programs, marketing departments, and marketing faculty. Finally, the authors conclude with a discussion of the contributions of the article to marketing academe.