Creating Learning Communities through Flipped Classes: A Challenge, an Answer, or an Opportunity for Teaching Strategic Human Resource Management?

Abstract

Teaching strategic human resource management to postgraduate students is becoming a challenge in countries like Australia, particularly due to the students undertaking postgraduate studies without relevant professional work experience. To address this, we used flipped teaching and learning activities and attempted to develop a learning community among multi-cultural postgraduate students who had no (or minimal) professional work experience. Using duoethnographic technique, we recorded our observations and reflections over three semesters in teaching strategic human resource management at postgraduate level in an Australian University. Our reflections demonstrate that community-based learning environment allows students without any relevant work experience to put strategic human resource management theories into practice whilst it allows students with previous work experience to gain leadership, mentoring, and advisory skills by acting as experts. Hence, this paper contributes to human resource management pedagogy by highlighting that flipped activities reflecting strategic human resource management principles contribute to: a) expansion of student learning practices and community boundaries, and b) expertise development.

Keywords

• teaching and learning
• strategic human resource management
• communities of practice
• postgraduate students
• flipped classroom