Indigenous Conversational Approach to History and Business Education

Abstract

Relationships, past, present, and future, and applied learning are critically important aspects of Indigenous knowledge systems. We advocate bringing forward Indigenous ways of thinking, old ways of thinking, as novel and relative to the ways of thinking generally practiced by Academy membership. This article demonstrates how three Indigenous business scholars use applied relational methods to imagine new possibilities for business studies. Using a combination of autoethnographic and conversational style writing, we reflect on our experiences as Indigenous scholars working, learning, and teaching in business schools. We highlight how business school knowledge systems, past and present, reinforce colonial narratives, despite calls for diversity. We explain the double bind that Indigenous scholars face engaging with the critical study of history. Finally, we encourage our colleagues to consider using relational methods to reflect on their sources of agency within business school systems.