Newcastle United Stole My Heart

This dissertation is the result of my own personal journey toward incorporating a critical lens into management education. During my career as an accountant, I applied a critical perspective toward the business world but it was a narrow perspective. The application of this perspective was limited to a personal level that primarily included the current work environment that I was engaged in at that time. However, while I was teaching an accounting class at a small private college I experienced an epiphany that began to move me beyond the personal and out into the implications of a critical perspective for society and the possibilities for change. The following personal narrative describes my epiphany and the impetus for this study: I have been walking into this accounting classroom three times a week for the last five weeks. It is halfway through the quarter and I am explaining once again, another instance where the rules of accounting do not match the actual practice in the business world. As I stand there looking out at the learners, who are predominately African-American and Hispanic, it occurs to me that the "rules" they are learning in this business undergraduate program will not necessarily match their experiences in the real world. The rules of society I am thinking about say that anyone can have the American dream, if they just work hard enough, and a college degree is the key to their success. But the actual experience is that too many times employers would rather hire a White male, or a White female will do in a pinch, than hire an AfricanAmerican or a Hispanic regardless of how well-qualified they are for the job.