The Entrepreneurship Educator: Understanding Role Identity

Abstract

Significant research explores effectiveness of entrepreneurial curriculum, teaching innovations and programs, but less often studied is the role of entrepreneurship educators. The way that the educator sees his or her role relative to the students is of critical importance because this directly influences pedagogy choices, expectations for students and learning outcomes, as well as job satisfaction. While recent studies propose typologies characterizing pedagogical approaches of educators, few of these are based on the data from entrepreneurship educators. Framed within role identity theory, we conducted 13 in–depth interviews to examine how entrepreneurship educators perceive their role. Using the qualitative data analysis tool (NVivo), we analyzed how the relationship between their perceptions of their role and core value orientation is connected to teaching approaches. Results show that these educators view their roles as teacher-focused, network-focused, or student-focused and that these perspectives are associated with different perceptions of students’ role and learning objectives. Further, we find different levels of emphasis on roles and that personal core values are differentially linked to these roles. Implications and future research directions are discussed.

Identity work of academic teachers in an entrepreneurship training camp: a sensemaking approach

“…Previous research has focused on entrepreneurship educators within higher education, and pointed out the need to better understand the educator's role, background, and personal attributes (Neck and Corbett, 2018;Wraae and Walmsley, 2020;Wraae et al, 2022;Hannon, 2018;Henry, 2020). This research is mainly driven by the desire to enhance the quality and impact of entrepreneurship education as a distinctive business discipline.…”

“…Furthermore, teachers' own personal beliefs and values, as well as interpretations of what entrepreneurship means, may cause them to either reject or accept it (Zappe et al, 2013;Wraae and Walmsley, 2020;Wraae et al, 2022;Wyness and Jones, 2019). Consequently, more information is still needed regarding the role of teacher training in forming these beliefs or role identities (Wraae et al, 2022).…”

Significado de la enseñanza en emprendimiento y el desarrollo de la cultura emprendedora en la universidad

“…Entre los antecedentes de la educación emprendedora está: la práctica pedagógica del emprendimiento en docentes de una universidad de Barranquilla (Aldana et al, 2019) en que se manifiesta la relevancia de la formación de sus competencias emprendedoras y que contribuye al bienestar colectivo. Igualmente, el artículo de Wraee et al (2020), analiza el rol del educador empresarial al influir en sus alumnos con la pedagogía y satisfacción laboral.…”

Student challenges in entrepreneurship education: planning for uncertainty

“…The nature of the early-stage innovation process implies that organizers, such as university faculty, must acknowledge and accept the iterative, ambiguous, and uncertain path of the process. Consequently, organizers must take on several roles during the student challenge (Wraae et al, 2020).…”