Agile Teaching as Agency under Constraint: How Business Educators Navigate the Ri-gidity of Higher Education

Abstract Book of the 11th International Conference on Future of Teaching and Education

Year: 2026

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Agile Teaching as Agency under Constraint: How Business Educators Navigate the Ri-gidity of Higher Education

Alina Enge, Patrizia Ianiro-Dahm

ABSTRACT:

Amid the “polycrisis” facing higher education—marked by shrinking resources and institution-al inertia—management educators face a paradox: they are expected to foster agile mindsets in students while operating within rigid, linear administrative structures. This study explores how university lecturers enact agile teaching not merely as a pedagogical method, but as a values-based response to these systemic constraints. Drawing on semi-structured expert interviews with seven early adopters in German business schools (high information power sample), we identify a mechanism of “constructive subversion.” Findings reveal that educators reclaim agency by outwardly complying with static module descriptions while internally disrupting the learning process through radical transparency, failure tolerance (“Learning Spirit”), and the del-egation of ownership (“Empowered Self-Guidance”). We argue that agile teaching serves as a form of reflexive academic development, allowing faculty to model adaptive capacity under pressure. Consequently, this study offers a critical perspective on the institutional development of management education by demonstrating how the changing roles of management educa-tors—enacted through situated agency—are essential to sustain pedagogical innovation amidst the rigid legitimacy pressures of modern Business Schools.

Keywords: Adaptive Professionalism; Agile Teaching; Employability; Reflexive Academic Development; Psychological Safety