“Through the Looking Glass” Management Education Gone Awry

This article draws on poststructural Experiential Learning Theory to conceptualize management development as a series of concurrent reflective conversations. The developmental change process is illustrated through the experiences of Lewis Carroll’s character Alice in the books Through the Looking Glass and Alice and Her Adventures in Wonderland. Furthering the distinction between personal and social knowledge, the article suggests that development, and by extension learning, is not a direct reflection of individual self but rather a process of looking “awry” at individual experience. Implications for the efficacy of various pedagogies—such as lecture, simulations and experiential exercises, critical facilitation, and problem solving—are explored for each conversation.