Development of a human-centric pedagogical ethos for construction management education amidst industry 5.0

Purpose Pedagogical and andragogical research within higher education (HE) is ubiquitous throughout a diverse range of academic disciplines. However, pedagogical ethos with an increasingly digital curricula has attracted scant academic attention and Construction Management Education (CME) programmes are no exception. Hence, this research seeks to enhance contemporary CME models for teaching student preparedness to capitalise upon advanced digital technologies (e.g. artificial intelligence and machine learning) under the auspices of Industry 5.0. Design/methodology/approach A mixed philosophical stance of interpretivism and pragmatism is adopted together with inductive reasoning to examine construction education experts' perceptions of the phenomena investigated. Textual content analysis of semi-structured interview transcripts was utilised to formulate a novel pedagogical ethos for CME. Such knowledge captures the contemporary zeitgeist within HE and inextricably links human centric interaction within digital technologies via taught curricular. Findings Research findings reveal that more research is required to address a notable knowledge gap on the students' interaction with digital technologies to better prepare them for a career in the sector. Leading on from these findings, a novel proof-of-concept model is developed to engender a robust pedagogical ethos for CME. Originality/value This research constitutes the first attempt to develop a pedagogical ethos within CME. Moreover, the work underscores the urgency for collaboration within the built environment supply chain (i.e. both downstream raw materials production and upstream deliver to clients) to optimise future CME practices and reap rewards from the innate potential of Industry 5.0.