Bringing the outside in: industry-leading research drives change in the classroom

For Dr Lauren Gurrieri, Associate Professor in Marketing and Co-Director of the Centre for Organisations and Social Change (COSC), the environment created by a classroom is important in creating change, through its ability to foster learning that develops generations of socially responsible professionals.

“Empowering students as change agents in the classroom is a powerful pedagogical tool,” said Gurrieri.

“It gives them the confidence to go out into the world and re-imagine industry cultures and practices in positive and inclusive ways.”

Dr Bronwyn Coate, a Senior Lecturer in Economics, frames her teaching approach around her strong industry connections and research background.

“My training and background are in economics and my research interests lie in applying economics to empirically analyse the fields of arts and culture,” she said.

“I bring my multi- and inter-disciplinary insights into the classroom to engage students and bring greater real-world relevance to learning.”

“My goal is to inspire students to be future leaders and well-informed citizens that the world needs to address some of the pressing issues of our time.”

Research Centre creates connections between real-world and classsroom

That research and broader insight is driven in part by the pair’s involvement with RMIT’s Centre for Organisations and Social Change.

Launched late last year, COSC is an interdisciplinary research centre based in the College of Business and Law.

Researchers examine contemporary business, policy and societal challenges to find evidence-based solutions for creating inclusive, equitable and thriving organisations. 

As Co-Director of the Centre, Gurrieri brings extensive research expertise in gender marketing and consumer culture, with a particular focus on sexist advertising.

She has a long-standing research partnership with Women’s Health Victoria, working closely with them through “shEqual”, the first coordinated effort in Australia to promote gender equality and address the drivers of violence against women in the advertising setting.

“Being able to draw this experience into the classroom gives students an understanding of the real-world application of the topics and concepts they are learning,” she said.

Coate is the Co-Theme Leader for the research theme ‘Gender Equity and Organisations’, and cites the impact-driven approach to research conducted through the Centre. 

“A key responsibility I share is to ensure that research conducted in the gender equity space informs best practice to drive change and progress towards improved gender and equity outcomes,” she said.

“This involves recognising how embedded institutional structures and processes influence workplace culture and the social environment, and how discrimination shapes outcomes for individuals in the workplace and society.”

Self-reflection key to empowering students to affect change

For both Gurrieri and Coate, critical thinking and self-reflection are powerful tools to empowering their students to be agents of change in driving gender equity.

In 2018, Gurrieri designed a new course, Marketing and Society, which prepares undergraduate business students to develop capabilities in ethical and social responsibility as future marketing practitioners and to evaluate marketing’s role and impact on society.

This year, the final assessment task that students will undertake is focused on analysing and creating solutions for gender equality issues in marketing. 

“Most marketing courses focus on the applied aspects of marketing - the nuts and bolts of marketing” she explained. 

“Marketing and Society gets students to consider the bigger picture of their subject matter and adopt a critical thinking mindset in the classroom.”

“Students examine a range of emerging, topical and contentious issues across marketing and society, including gender inequality problems such as the ongoing use and promotion of gender stereotypes or beauty ideals in marketing.”

They then consider how marketers and consumers can respond to these complex societal challenges to advocate for and promote social change.” 

In her teaching Coate uses activity-based learning to challenge students in understanding how bias shapes the response to situational contexts that probe power imbalances.

“Women’s under-representation cannot typically be fixed by deficit models focused on women’s need to self-improve and lean-in,” she said. 

“Especially when toxic workplace cultures create barriers for women to flourish.” 

“Students complete self-assessment tasks to understand their biases and behavioural traits and attitudes,” she said. 

“Using these results, they undertake self-reflection and consider insights in relation to their career ambitions and in light of real-world industry case studies explored in class.”

“The aim is to expose students to thinking about themselves in the context of fair, diverse and inclusive workplaces and the importance of taking individual responsibility for this.”

“By encouraging students to move away from a deficit way of thinking that ignores institutionalised processes and status quo power imbalances, I hope to empower them to be advocates from equity in the workplace and society more generally.”