Reinterpreting a signature pedagogy for entrepreneurship education

Abstract

PurposeThe importance of contextualizing theory development in entrepreneurship education has recently been raised. Nevertheless, efforts often lead to rather decontextualized concepts and generic theories that are unable to bring together the complexities of applying entrepreneurship education to particular institutional logics and local pedagogical understandings. Based on a narrow and selective literature review, this study aims to identify and reconstruct how entrepreneurship education can adjust to the disciplines in which it unfolds. To contribute to transcending this dilemma, this article raises the following question: How can entrepreneurship education be understood in a differentiated manner and contextually reconstructed to the many disciplines and professions in which it unfolds?Design/methodology/approachThe study follows the general idea of an integrative literature review, meaning that a few references, in particular Jones' work on a signature pedagogy for entrepreneurship education, led to a deeper search of the older background literature from Shulman on the idea of a signature pedagogy for professions.FindingsThe authors identify three existing notions (MK-0, MK-1 and MK-2) of signature pedagogy within entrepreneurship education and propose a fourth notion that combines the established understandings into a signature pedagogy, MK-3, in which entrepreneurship education should be adjusted to the disciplines in which it unfolds, by integrating and balancing general, disciplinary/professional and entrepreneurial purposes of education.Originality/valueAccepting that context matters to entrepreneurship education creates a need for understanding the contextual influence on pedagogies. The paper contributes by establishing a theory-based framework that can help educators formulate and balance general, professional and entrepreneurial purposes of education, depending on the particular context of their educational activities. Furthermore, the paper is a call to action for additional scholarship that identifies avenues for future research.

Student entrepreneurship ecosystems at Australian higher education institutions

“…Firstly, an overarching emphasis is manifested in alignment with the literature regarding the experiential nature of entrepreneurship education. This is predominantly demonstrated in the innovative pedagogy and heutagogy applied in UAs, directly aligned with leading research by Jones (2019a, b), Bliemel et al (2019), and Ramsgaard and Blenker (2021) on entrepreneurship signature pedagogy. Secondly, there is somewhat of a disparate link between entrepreneurship education ecosystems and entrepreneurship initiatives such as UAs, mentorship and bootcamps, highlighting noncongruence between entrepreneurship education and UAs (see, e.g.…”

“…, 2020). At the foundation to successful entrepreneurship education is the development of signature pedagogies, incorporating contextualisation and community of practice around professional, entrepreneurial and general purposes (Ramsgaard and Blenker, 2021). Signature pedagogies also align with socio-cognitive theories in this paper regarding self-efficacy, learning from failure and behavioural changes (Bandura, 1977).…”

“…Furthermore, the advancements in EEs over the past decade have accelerated the dynamic interface of entrepreneurship education ecosystems, further enhanced by transformation and disruption in delivery and pedagogy because of Covid-19 (Wurth et al, 2021;Maritz et al, 2020). At the foundation to successful entrepreneurship education is the development of signature pedagogies, incorporating contextualisation and community of practice around professional, entrepreneurial and general purposes (Ramsgaard and Blenker, 2021). Signature pedagogies also align with sociocognitive theories in this paper regarding self-efficacy, learning from failure and behavioural changes (Bandura, 1977).…”

Entrepreneurship as a Career Option within Education: A Critical Review of Psychological Constructs

“…Another tendency of entrepreneurship education is to leak from the formal education to the non-formal and informal learning domains, supporting extracurricular entrepreneurship education, which is often materialized, by also embracing other stakeholders in entrepreneurial ecosystems (incubators, accelerators, and others) in the surroundings of the educational institutes [31]. As a result, entrepreneurial courses may pursue different pedagogies [32] amidst other perspectives such as andrago-heutagogical approaches [33,34] or signature pedagogies [35,36]. Therefore, entrepreneurship education is a research field under development in tandem with entrepreneurship itself.…”

Engaging Literature Students in Entrepreneurship: Could use of art Help?

“…Gailly 2015, Nabi et al 2018). Concurrently, there are studies which suggest effective entrepreneurship education has to become more context-aware (Ramsgaard and Blenker 2021, Saukkonen and Kakouris 2022, Thomassen et al 2020, Welter 2011. Hence, embedding entrepreneurship to other disciplines has to adapt to different contexts both in teaching content and methods without sufficient educational research on how these adaptations are possible and efficient.…”