“Beyond our bubble”: bridging marketing classrooms and communities experiencing vulnerabilities

Purpose The author(s), often ask the students to design marketing projects that engage with societal inequities, to step into unfamiliar realities, listen to marginalized voices and craft solutions with empathy. Over time, the author(s) realized that they had not always done the same themselves. This paper aims to reflect on that discomfort and on the author(s)’ deliberate effort to step beyond academic routines, to be present, to listen and to learn directly from the communities the author(s) often discuss from a distance. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on more than five years of engagement, including immersive and observational experiences with vulnerable communities in a Southeast Asian context, the author(s) reflect on how these encounters reshaped the teaching. Findings The author(s) distill their learning into three principles: (1) Embodied teaching, (2) Intentional framing and (3) Small but meaningful gestures. These principles were implemented in the classroom through subtle and deliberate strategies that influenced both what we taught and how we taught. Evidence of student transformation emerged through reflections, project choices and engagement with real-world initiatives. Research limitations/implications These reflections are grounded in specific experiences and contexts and are not intended to form a generalizable model. However, the paper offers an invitation to consider how presence and engagement, rather than reliance on conceptual distance alone, can meaningfully inform teaching practice. Practical implications The pedagogical approach outlined here provides a flexible framework that can be adapted across diverse teaching contexts. It is informed by a commitment to humility, relational engagement and a view of marketing as a discipline capable of contributing to social impact. Originality/value This paper provides a practice-informed reflection on pedagogical approaches aimed at fostering meaningful impact in marketing education. It demonstrates how modest adjustments in educators’ practice can help narrow the distance between classroom intentions and lived realities while creating space for stories and perspectives that matter.