Refocusing — Building a Future for Entrepreneurial Education and Learning

Abstract

<jats:p> The field of entrepreneurship has struggled with fundamental questions concerning the subject's nature and purpose. To whom and to what means are educational and training agendas ultimately directed? Such questions have become of central importance to policy makers, practitioners and academics alike. There are suggestions that university business schools should engage more critically with the lived experiences of practising entrepreneurs through alternative pedagogical approaches and methods, seeking to account for and highlighting the social, political and moral aspects of entrepreneurial practice. In the UK, where funding in higher education has become increasingly dependent on student fees, there are renewed pressures to educate students for entrepreneurial practice as opposed to educating them about the nature and effects of entrepreneurship. Government and EU policies are calling on business schools to develop and enhance entrepreneurial growth and skill sets, to make their education and training programmes more proactive in providing innovative educational practices which help and facilitate life experiences and experiential learning. This paper makes the case for critical frameworks to be applied so that complex social processes become a source of learning for educators and entrepreneurs and so that innovative pedagogical approaches can be developed in terms both of context (curriculum design) and process (delivery methods). </jats:p>

Entrepreneurial learning in practice: The impact of knowledge transfer

“…This reflection, similar to that concluded by Cope (2005) demonstrates the ongoing existence of 'reflective practitioners', (pp. 380;Higgins and Galloway, 2014). Three of the four Principals, for example, were very clearly highly qualified and experienced in their respective technologies, what we might classify as 'known-knowns'.…”

“…It is through reflection he argues that experience is turned into learning. Higgins & Galloway (2014) add weight to the importance of reflection in practitioner learning, stating 'the use of reflexivity to critique practice invites entrepreneurs to question claims of existing knowledge and the process of knowledge creation. ', (p453).…”

Entrepreneurial teachers do make a difference – Or do they?

“…Other studies have suggested entrepreneurial teachers demonstrate entrepreneurial behaviour in their actions (Gibb, 2011;Higgins et al, 2014). Innovativeness in teaching has been related to creative classroom behaviours and a constructivist teaching approach (Ucus and Acar, 2018).…”

In search of entrepreneurial competencies: Peripheral vision and multidisciplinary inspiration

“…These challenges are long-standing (Gibb, 2002(Gibb, , 2005Higgins and Galloway, 2014), with Kirby (2004) calling for a paradigm change that better considers competency and mindset development, and Pittaway and Edwards (2012) for assessment that is more innovative, reflective and inclusive of stakeholders: 'There is a need for further research that explores assessment practice in entrepreneurship education in disciplines outside of business schools' (Pittaway and Edwards, 2012: 794). Krueger and Welpe (2014) engaged with an evolving series of neuroscience discussions, concluding that, while research into the learning brain was hard to follow, it could offer valuable insights related to entrepreneurial competency development.…”