Tampering With the Autonomous Self? Student Reactions to a Course on Critical Perspectives of Social Entrepreneurship

Abstract

This article analyzes student reactions to a course on critical perspectives of social entrepreneurship. Conceptualizing student reactions not merely as resistance but as a breaking up of ‘illusions” that students nurture about their selves make these reactions both more graspable for teachers and possible to influence. First, the article suggests that student reactions need to be acknowledged and comprehended in their complexity, and that teachers adjust pedagogical approaches to students’ abilities and the level of awareness. Second, the article examines processual and relational aspects of critical pedagogy and identifies in student reactions a sense of ambivalence that makes students alternate between resistance/rejection and curiosity/attraction. This ambivalence implies that reconstructive, or hopeful, aspects of entrepreneurship are important in critical curricula in order to complement more deconstructive or skeptical aspects. From a relational point of view, it is desirable that teachers support students in their learning processes by creating a safe and trusting space for learning. The article also discusses the responsibility and sensitivity of teachers and suggests that teachers’ acceptance of own feelings of insufficiency, shame, or vulnerability plays an important role in creating spaces that favor learning and mutual trust between teachers and students.

The Dilemma of Social Entrepreneurship and Social Enterprise: An Exercise

“…We must now also face new educational challenges in an increasingly 'woke' world keenly alert to injustice in society. Wettermark (2020) discusses these challenges and provides a significant literature review. Wettermark (2020) notes that our challenge as educators in areas such as social entrepreneurship is to "encourage students to discover alternative points of view -but not to the point of stigmatizing them" (p. 293).…”

Navigating the Terrain of Entrepreneurship Education in Neoliberal Societies

“…The questions posed here could guide us as teachers to remain present in the teaching situation, be prepared to meet unenthusiastic reactions, and provide a thicker story that paints the background for problematizations when necessary (cf. Wettermark, 2020). This would ground us in an ethics of unsettling, where we continuously are in dialogue with ourselves, colleagues, and students of why, how, and with what direction we seek to transgress norms and boundaries of what entrepreneurship 'is', and to understand what it may 'do' to us, and how we can relate to this in pedagogical contexts.…”

“…Furthermore, we should not limit our investigations to how students engage in just these processes. The articles in this special issue call for extending this area of research to understand and embrace the identity work of teachers as well (see Wettermark, 2020;Zawadzki et al, 2020). Within the EE domain, there may be paradoxical tensions between the assumed "freedom" inherent to entrepreneurship (and entrepreneurship teaching) and the normative expectations set by our institutions and voiced by the students in terms of relevant content and the required qualifications for an entrepreneurship educator.…”

“…feelings of discomfort, vulnerability, and shame. Wettermark (2020), for example, discusses some negative student reactions in a course she teaches and how the students struggle with a sense of discomfort. They complain about instructions being vague and the course being chaotic and filled with miscommunication and misunderstandings.…”

“…All of this is done purposefully; it has a role in the course. Wettermark (2020) does not seek to please her students as if they were consumers, but she does mean to address critical themes in a critical manner. Likewise, Gaggiotti et al (2020) purposefully create learning experiences that allow students to dwell in ambiguity and uncertainty as a deliberate teaching strategy.…”