Socio-digital disadvantage within management education: a study of MBA students’ experiences of digital technologies

Assumptions regarding digital technologies in business schools have become part of the hidden curriculum. It is generally assumed that students have the same levels of access and prior exposure to digital technologies as well as information and digital literacies (IDL) skills. Little attention has been given to the issues of social-digital inequalities and the impact of this hidden curriculum on students from disadvantaged backgrounds. In this study, using a phenomenographic approach, we examine how students from rural, socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds in Pakistan, experienced digital technologies in the context of a full-time, in-person MBA program. The findings reveal the students initially had an alienating experience of digital technologies which for most transitions to either an engaged or instrumental experience. While the students exercised agency in transitioning from an alienation experience this was as a result of their own effort, time and labor. We conclude that without additional support offered to students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, the hidden curriculum associated with digital technologies potentially perpetuates, or maintains socio-digital inequalities within management education.