In this essay, we consider the development challenges and opportunities for education-focused management educators who specialize in teaching and learning. We provide support to address the challenges and stimulate debate on how opportunities can be maximized and recognized. The heart of our contribution is constructing a three-step framework that addresses the challenges and opportunities by outlining practices for discerning an educator’s vocation, activities for individual self-development, and approaches to community building. These elements provide a reflexive framework for career development, which can be used as a “textual partner” by those who lack sufficient opportunities for guidance and exploration, often due to limited resources. Adaptively working with the steps in our framework will provide practical options to help education-focused management educators craft their career paths in ways that best support their sense of vocation.
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