Chapter 5: Marketing education at UKZN
5.2 Discourses
5.2.4 Marketing compared to other disciplines
O‟Creevy et al, 2006, p.12), as well as for transfer (Maton, 2009). Again this shows how discourses at the level of the real impact on students‟ experiences in Marketing at UKZN, with consequences for epistemological access.
…short examples, drawn from the business world, are designed to engage students’
interest in the materials presented (Churchill et al, 2010, p.xix) …numerous real-world examples (Schiffman et al, 2010, p.15)
…two cases now appear at the end of each chapter (Schiffman et al, 2010, p.15)
All professors appreciate students who bring examples related to the course to class because such initiatives favourably reflect their own ability to generate enthusiasm toward marketing and consumer behaviour among their students (Schiffman et al, 2010, p.16).
Even though many research traditions consider them to be “an inferior form of argument” and
“inadequate for higher forms of thought” (Lischinsky, 2008, p.243), examples are commonly used as persuasive argument in popular business and management discourse. Lischinsky asserts that
“the inherent interpretive richness of examples allows them to perform a variety of functions – establishing factuality, significance and desirability, often at the same time” and that the prevalence of examples in business and management disciplines leads to “textual forms less rigidly articulated than is usual in academic prose” (2008, p.264). As noted in Section 5.2.2.1, the prevalence during Marketing lectures of examples drawn from personal experiences and the subsequent blurring of the boundary between everyday and academic Marketing knowledge made it difficult for students to know when and how to appropriately use these two categories of knowledge in their assessment tasks.
There would seem to be some contradiction between the ‟interpretive richness‟ of examples, which are widely used in Marketing and the weak semantic density that characterises the discipline. This may be due to the manner in which examples and cases are typically used in Marketing education. Referring specifically to Marketing textbooks, Hackley notes the proliferation of „case vignettes‟ but is critical of their spurious and arbitrary use, asserting that the grounds for their application to specific techniques “are never fleshed out” (2003, p.1342). Hunt agrees that the use of examples in Marketing textbooks reflects „dumbing down‟:
In order to understand the concept of „discount department stores‟, do juniors, seniors and graduate students in university programmes really need to see a picture of a Wal-Mart? In order to understand that railroads are used in transporting goods, do students need to see a picture of a train?
(2002, p.311).
The discourse around examples links back to the discourse of „Marketing as everyday‟, as discussed earlier in the chapter. As was noted there, lecturers felt that students‟ inappropriately drew on personal, anecdotal examples in their Marketing assessment tasks. This had implications for their recognition in the disciplinary Discourse.
With regard to case studies, Kiara, who was registered for a Social Science degree, noted that she had only encountered these in her business courses. Case studies are indeed a staple of pedagogy in the management disciplines (Schmidt-Wilk, 2010), as they are considered to be useful in helping students to think like managers. By working on cases, students get to solve problems, make decisions and apply disciplinary knowledge (Forman & Rymer, 1999). Students also gain insight into the ambiguous, complex and messy reality of management practice - although the tendency for lecturers to set „cleaned up‟ case studies is problematic for encouraging transfer (Fenton-O‟Creevy et al, 2006).
At UKZN, the amount and nature of case study work was also not felt to be ideal. Kiara noted that while case studies were done often in one of the third-year modules, the other module required hardly any case study work. Michael felt that students were often able to simply classify information in a case study – for example, in terms of a given model - rather than being able to apply knowledge to the specific scenario or to analyse the situation and make recommendations.
This would seem to indicate that the sorts of questions that are being set on the cases are testing
„understanding‟ rather than „application‟.
In other words, give them a case study, what students do is they repeat. They…they perfectly classify, let’s say, the target market and the 4 Ps from the case study. I don’t want that. I want to know what they make of it-… They should propose…and what the strategy should be going forward - not what it is (Michael).
In contrast to earlier assertions that Marketing was “just facts and stuff” (Ben), mainly drawn from textbooks, many students noted that there was opportunity for them to give their own opinions and arguments.
Like in case studies – that’s a real life situation - I believe that in those cases, there’s no right or wrong answer. Just an idea what you think, what’s your opinion, ‘cos the questions that they are asking that “In your opinion, should BMW do this for their marketing, for their consumers?” (Sihle)
I don’t know…just the style might be different, um… I don’t know – more in terms of like…more sort of your point of view and not just the information you might get from the textbook. Ja, like I think Management is ‘This is that, bam’; it’s a lot how things sort of gel in a business corporation sort of thing. Marketing is a lot more perspectives sort of thing (Maxine)
…I think we are given a lot of room to…say our feelings (Amantha).
Additionally, during her interview, Kamini indicated that what she liked about Response B in the stimulus piece was that the examples in that response seemed “more realistic to the person answering” rather than being drawn from a textbook.
Differences in writing styles in different disciplines were also noticed.
Specifically, like with Economics…structure doesn’t matter if you’re given an essay question...they’ll give you maybe a graph and they’ll tell you to write about it and they give you values and things. They want you to use that in your answer. So as long as you have all the facts from that graph, they mark you based on what you actually write… So they won’t mark you on grammar or anything, as long as you have the specific points and you make it…er…you explain that this is a certain thing, then they’ll give you the marks. It’s not so much their discretion on how you’re writing……as long as you have the facts there, then you get the marks. Marketing and Management, it’s similar, very similar…You write based on your book work and examples…There is a structure. You have to have the introduction nicely, and the body, and conclusion (Amantha).
The students also spoke of how their learning strategies varied depending on which discipline they were studying for.
I mean, okay, when it comes for…to…to…the numerical studies like Maths and stuff like that…like, you have a paper, you write the…you write it down, you apply. But when you’re studying for Marketing, I mean, you get a book that’s so big. You can’t read, write, read, write. The only thing that I can do is try and understand the concept - not for MCQs, but I’m studying to understand what is happening here so I will apply it in the test. So it’s just going through it and trying to write down the understanding that I got from what I’ve been reading…just summaries in…in…in point form so that I can understand…I get points – maybe certain steps or something… I try to make them understandable, you know, like writing the first…only the first alphabet so that I will remember (Ben)
When…when I do like Maths, Economics…okay Maths…it’s…it’s…in a way it’s interesting
‘cos I’m doing something – writing, um, things. Whereas Marketing I have to focus and…it has to be quiet. I have to read. Read and try to understand. Like read and read and read and try to understand… There’s no practice. [Pause]. Like…how do I say this?
Like with Marketing you have to read, understand. With Maths, I…I’m doing calculations……I’m able to see whether I’m right or wrong… …if the answer…am I getting the answer… Ja. Am I getting the answer? With Marketing, you’re reading, you don’t know what’s going to happen in the test. Is…is my example that I’m using…are they right, are they appropriate for this…section? I could be using the wrong example or… Ja.
And you tend to forget when it comes to tests (Thuli).