José-Carlos García-Rosell
Teaching Philosophy
Critical Reflection and Reflexivity
Teaching, for me, means helping students learn how to learn and understand their social worlds. I emphasized supporting students in developing critical thinking and reflexivity, which I see as vital to responsible business. While critical thinking refers to the skills needed to deal with ethical issues in today's complex business environments, critical reflexivity is the ability to question business-as-usual in a search for more responsible business practices. My understanding of teaching aligns with the postmodern perspective on experiential learning and relational social-constructionist orientation to management learning. Following these educational perspectives, I view learning as a long-life process embedded in our social relations and interactions.
Through experiential learning pedagogies, I aim to encourage students to feel inspired and personally engaged in their learning by reflecting on complex business and society issues from different stakeholder perspectives. This is essential for educating the responsible business leaders of tomorrow. Being disposed to critical thinking and reflexivity allows professionals to be open-minded, inquiring, mindful, caring, and ready to critically evaluate contemporary management practices and decision-making. These are among the essential dispositions that students should develop to transform old ways of organizing, managing, and relating to stakeholders in tourism.
If you would like to learn more about my teaching philosophy, please feel free to contact me.
Teaching Experience
Undergraduate, graduate, doctoral and executive education
I have lectured undergraduate and graduate courses on topics around CSR, Business Ethics, Sustainable Marketing, Responsible Tourism Business, Foresight & Service Design, and Destination Management. I have extensive experience with different pedagogies and learning methods. I always put effort into bringing practical insights into the classroom by relying on social media, audiovisual material, guest lecturers, and assignments planned in collaboration with practitioners. I also have experience in executive MBA education, mentoring hackathons and in planning and implementing international courses. During 2013-2015, I successfully received funding from the Finnish-Russian Study programme (CIMO) to implement four graduate courses with Russian partner universities.
I supervise several Master's theses and doctoral dissertations. Several of my students have been nominated and received a "Best Thesis Award" recognition. I have participated in the curriculum development of the management and tourism degree program and also served on different advisory boards focusing on developing graduate and doctoral education. I have written several articles and book chapters dealing with experiential learning, Problem-Based Learning (PBL), Critical Reflexivity, and Storytelling. I was nominated for the “Best Teacher of the Year” award at the University of Lapland in 2014.
If you would like to learn more about my teaching experience, please feel free to contact me.
Courses 2024-2025
BUSINESS ETHICS
In this master-level course, I introduce participants to business ethics and moral philosophy as a crucial aspect of contemporary business. Throughout the course, participants learn to apply normative and descriptive ethical theories to practical situations in management and marketing. By doing so, the course provides learners with frameworks for understanding and evaluating moral dilemmas and guiding ethical decision-making. The course also offers insights into business ethics management tools (e.g. code of conduct, whistleblowing) and current ethical discussions (e.g. AI ethics, animal ethics, labor and human rights). The course is included in the master's programs of the Oulu Business School.
Thesis Seminar
In the thesis seminar, participants go through the different phases of the thesis process, developing the theoretical and methodological perspective of their thesis. They learn how to conduct scientific research and make justified recommendations for addressing business and economic problems. Participants demonstrate a deep understanding of scientific knowledge within their major. They learn to present and defend their research in public. During the seminar, participants develop their research plan and write their thesis according to the principles of good scientific practice. As part of the seminar, I supervise students from the master's program in sustainable marketing and international business.
From 2013 to 2023, I led a pioneering international master’s program in responsible tourism business. The program has been at the forefront of Finnish tourism higher education, equipping learners with the knowledge and critical skills needed to drive sustainable change in the global tourism industry.
Ethical principles
My teaching is based on fairness and respect
Responsibility for promoting positive Iearning experiences and the reinforcement of learners' self-esteem.
Equal and fair treatment of all students independent of race, religious believes, gender, age, etc.
Fair evaluation criteria and process
Respect for opinions and points of view as long as they are not offensive to myself or another student
Confidentiality and protecting the information of each individual student
Respect for students’ knowledge and experiences