UNDER ATTACK – FACULTY’S EXPERIENCE OF ENCOURAGING CRITICAL REFLECTION IN BUSINESS SCHOOL EDUCATION Nanna Gillberg (Stockholm School of Economics) Charlotte Holgersson (Stockholm School of Economics) Johan Hvenmark (Stockholm School of Economics) Pia Höök* (Stockholm School of Economics) Monica Lindgren (Stockholm School of Economics) *Corresponding author: Pia Höök Stockholm School of Economics Box 6501, 113 83 Stockholm, Sweden E-mail: pia.hook@hhs.se Abstract submitted to 4 th International Critical Management Studies Conference, 4-6 July 2005, Cambridge University, UK The aim of the paper is to deepen our understanding of the complexities of integrating gender/feminist theories and other critical perspectives within a curriculum mainly consisting of gender absent theory. The paper builds on research focusing critical pedagogy (e.g. Freire 1970, Giroux 1998, Reynolds 1999, Mingers 2000, Currie & Knights 2003), gender and education (e.g. Yates 1990, Stratham et al 1991, Acker 1994, Erson 1994, Murray et al 1999, Wahl 1999, Messner 2000), and more specifically research on gender and critical theory in management education (e.g. Sinclair 1995, 2000, Smith 2000, Clarke 1999, Marshall 1999). The analysis of the paper builds on our own experiences as faculty from teaching feminist theories and encouraging critical reflection within a compulsory course in organization theory at an elite business school in Sweden. The aim was to deepen the students understanding of power and culture in organizations and to develop their ability for critical reflection. The syllabus consisted of feminist organization theory and critical theories on organizational cultures and entrepreneurship and a problem-based learning philosophy was used. The faculty involved in the course, four women and one man, were scholars in organization theory, well acquainted with and highly committed to teaching critical organization studies and gender theories. Two of the women in faculty team had co-authored the textbook on feminist organization theory included in the curriculum. They were members of a research group that were subject to an aggressive public attack by a right-wing journalist during the same semester as the above-described course was given. The attack – launched through a book, TV interviews and letters to editors of leading newspapers – claimed that the research group was partly to blame for the feminist orientation of Swedish politics and that the students at the elite business school were being “programmed” by