Relational Learning in Marketing Empowering Women Business Graduates, a Tapestry from the East

Giovanna’s research is a participative action research that is being conducted in Ras Al Khaimah (RAK), an emirate located in the Northern part of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).  The research aims to reveal the experiences and insights of the Ras Al Khaimah Women’s College (RKWC) business graduates on relational learning in marketing.

In her research, Giovanna explores how her relational learning initiatives and approaches, namely her dialogic classrooms, and linked projects with industries in the marketing courses she has facilitated, have impacted young Emirati women graduates, who were her students and have now graduated. The research aims to discover if and how these relational teaching approaches have helped the students learn, change and transform during their college time and beyond in their job interviews, starting positions, managerial positions and career paths.

Using in-depth interviews, the researcher has interviewed 25 women business graduates, 5 graduates from each consecutive class year, from 2008 to 2012, who have experienced relational learning in her marketing courses then.  She has also used in-depth interviews seeking the insights of 3 industry representatives in the research context (RAK) who had helped many of these women in their industry-linked projects the researcher had initiated between 2008 and 2012.  Moreover, the researcher has been triangulating the data and has run focus groups, gathered students’ feedback and stories from different classes. Self-reflexivity and transparency of the positionality of the researcher are critical in this research.

This research has resulted so far in a rich description of the stories of these graduates and industry representatives. The researcher will analyze the dominant discourses on relational learning in marketing, and its foreseen impact on the learning and growth of these women.

Some of the anticipated emerging themes are that relational learning in marketing is an education innovation in the research context, the relational learning in marketing is an education application, the relational learning in marketing leads to heightened 21st century competencies, and the relational learning in marketing may empower women in the research context.

It is expected that this research will inform a number of different stakeholders who can act as change agents, helping women students and graduates learn, change and transform. The research will indicate what the implications are for the women students/graduates themselves, as well as for educators, employers, college administrators, policy makers, and the research community.