Taylorism of the Mind: Entrepreneurship Education from a Perspective of Educational Research

Abstract

The aim of this article is to explore and discuss entrepreneurship education, and to raise some critical questions inspired by the work of Basil Bernstein. The discussion is based on writings on entrepreneurship education and thereby gives one picture of the intellectual debate on entrepreneurship education. In contrast to traditional education, viewed as transformation of knowledge and skills, entrepreneurship education is said to be about changing attitudes and motives. There is a consensus in the field that students can be successfully endowed with an entrepreneurial culture, when their attitudes are changed in the desired way. The focus on fostering a certain identity in entrepreneurship education might be seen as a part of the ongoing neo-liberal oriented educational restructuring process, which is sweeping through Europe.

A CULTure of entrepreneurship education

“…It is impossible to isolate activities within EE from wider societal understandings of who and what the entrepreneur and entrepreneurship is (Holmgren and From 2005;Ehrensal 2001;Jones 2014). Entrepreneurship is posited as a remedy to some of the fundamental problems of today's economies, such as unemployment and stagnating economic growth (Rasmussen et al 2011) and seems to offer a solution to problems associated with the increased pace and turbulence of social and economic change (Anderson and Jack 2008).…”

“…Consequently, EE in HE aims to transform students' attitudes, values, and selfunderstandings (Holmgren and From 2005), creating an imperative for all students to become enterprising (Pittaway and Cope 2007). This transformation manifests as an increased focus on the entrepreneur as a person, identified by certain abilities and practices, which should be stimulated and trained.…”

“…This does not mean that the conceptualisation of entrepreneurship in policy documents is directly translated into pedagogical practices (Robinson and Blenker 2014). However, there is a widespread understanding of the existence and necessary teaching of entrepreneurial mindsets, which transcends from research into policy or perhaps the other way around (Holmgren and From 2005). Berglund and Johansson (2007) argue that entrepreneurship is simply associated with goodness, which delimits the discursive domain in ways that make it difficult if not impossible to challenge.…”

“…Policy has positioned EE as a key intervention in the promotion and realisation of an enterprise culture (Holmgren and From 2005;EC 2012). …”

The Transformation of Creativity in Entrepreneurial Learning in Teacher Education: a Critical Reflection

“…Earlier research in question has also referred to the need for a more critical examination of entrepreneurial learning (Dahlstedt & Hertzberg, 2012;Holmgren & From, 2005;Insulander, Ehrlin & Sandberg, 2015;Leffler, 2006;Mahieu, 2006). Löwstedt (1999) claims that an entrepreneurial ideal is to be regarded as an expression of New Public Management, and Komulainen et al (2011) compare the focus on individually oriented abilities in entrepreneurial learning to a Trojan horse; neoliberal values come to replace the more humanist-oriented values that previously characterised the school's mission.…”