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Education Conference 2016
Entrepreneurship Education
Swimming against or with the entrepreneurial current?
Karin Berglund Associate Professor at • Stockholm Business School at Stockholm University • Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship Research focus on alternative entrepreneurship Interested in critical entrepreneurship education
[email protected]
Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship
Key Note speech for the 10th Entrepreneurship
The entrepreneur: swimming against or with the current?
Expansion of Entrepreneurship Discourse
Policy HIGH TECH… Intra-
Societal In school
Sustainable Green
Digital Social
Regional
eNtrePRenEurShiP Immigrants Older people´s
Womens Social
Personal
Disabled Young people´s
Indigenous
Green Blogger´s
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Entrepreneurialism: Everyone can now swim in the entrepreneurial current…
Critique
Critical perspectives on entrepreneurship education…
Two critical turns
1. Entrepreneurship is critical because it contributes to… e.g. economic growht, improved pedagogy (it is important!) 2. Critique towards something opens up for opportunities to be formulated – with the aim to improve the situation via a solution/ modification/ innovation (the entrepreneurial logic) 3. Critique as a reflective praxis; What is happening here? How can we understand this? What is let in? What is let out?
The first critical turn in entrepreneurship Common criticism: Entrepreneurship is fettered by capitalism and locked into a market economic logic that excludes people, values as well as potential entrepreneurial action. It leads to unethical behaviour and crisis.
CRITIQUE
Effect: Entrepreneurship has been redirected and new forms of alternative of entrepreneurships have emerged.
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The second critical turn in entrepreneurship Criticism: With the many new forms of alternative entrepreneurships, a richer variety of entrepreneurial selves follow. The entrepreneurial self is therefore no longer only connected to the entrepreneurial individual who starts a new company, but to the one that fosters life and ways of living under the umbrella of entrepreneurship. This variety of entrepreneurial selves are governed through ethical programs for change, rather than through freedom. Effect? New more moral neoliberal selves are fostered, which produces an idea(l) of how life should be lived. The life that is to be lived is the entrepreneurial life.
What do teachers tell they do when they do entrepreneurship in school?
Entrepreneurship/ Enterprising SCHOOL
Translation… "What is this good for?" "Should all become self-employed now?" This is how many reacted when this [entrepreneurship] was introduced. And it comes from above - oh well, so is this the trend now… We have had internationalization projects…. And now it is entrepreneurship - ha! As a teacher you then think; "How should I translate this into teaching?" My interpretation is that students need to learn to take initiatives. It is one of the major problems we have today. They lack initiative, but just sit there and receive…. So, it (entrepreneurship education) is about problem solving and discovering the problem.
Entrepreneurial teaching activities Entre pre ne urship
as ac tivity
Entre pre ne urship as pe dago gy
U nga s pekulerar Ung Före tags amhe t Fö re tag fö r e n dag* Snilleblixtar
M ässan ( Entré pro je kte t)
Pappers projektet
Åte rvinninge n
NTA
Frilufts dag för IVe le ve r U nga Fors kare
ASK Säc ke ntid
Ung Före tags amhe t (ämne s öve rgripande )
Temapedagogik John Bauer
Före tagare för e n Ledars kaps profil ve c ka Övnings före tag H ands laget PRAO Brans chprao Entreprenörsloppet Finn-Upp
Samarbe te me d re klambyrå G uidning
LAN -projektet
Utomhus pedagogik Vildmarks gymnas iets charkuteributik
(Interview, 2007-03-30)
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Variation – Organisation - Context Variation Entrepreneurship in school is characterized by a variation of teaching activities – covering ‘entrepreneurial pedagogy’ to various creative and entrepreneurial activities. Organizing The of teaching activities is linked to how education is organized. Context Regardless of the various contents and forms for organizing the common denominator is – for entrepreneurship education – to put things in a larger context.
Entrepreneurial role models?
Entrepreneurship: A ”red thread” in the educational system Preschool and first years of compulsory school …to promote entrepreneurial traits, as creativity, initiative, and autonomy…
Late years of compulsory school and upper secondary school …increase the awareness among students about selfemployment as a career option…
Universities …specific education regardign how to start (and run) a business
Challenge oneself…
Kent Bogren, Anna Fredkvist, Ulla Gredemyr
So, what did teachers tell us in their stories of entrepreneurship education?
Entrepreneurship as pedagogy
ENTREPRENEURSHIP PEDAGOGY
New forms for organizing education
”Traditional” education
ENTREPRENEURSHIP ACTIVITY IN EDUCATION
• Created conditions for an entrepreneurial approach characterized by creativity, reflexivity and initiative. • Knowledge was reconsidered, e.g. practical knowledge was upgraded. • Entrepreneurship was linked to school development. In particular was this done through developing new ways to organize school activities.
Entrepreneurship as an activity
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First critical turn in entrepreneurship education
What kind of entrepreneurial self is fostered through entrepreneurship education?
• Entrepreneurship is partly detached from its economic rationality and linked to creativity meaningfulness (but business is still part of many activities). • Entrepreneurship is made inclusive through an emphasis on other kinds of knowledge (e.g. practical skills, social skills) • There is an emphasis on the need, for students, to develop an entrepreneurial approach in relation to (working) life. • Entrepreneurship education turns into a pedagogical tool for school development.
Stoned Unquenchable Souls So Are Enthusiastic Souls Lit
So Are Enthusiastic Souls Lit ‘The present and the future are so much more complex and unpredictable than a few decades ago. A lot of people rely on the old principles of security, but these do not work for the generations that are growing up today. Governance, control and classic authoritarian methods only provide educators and students with a false sense of security to lean on for a limited time. Now we need a different starting point, where students are taught to meet new situations and constant change, to find security therein. In this context, the concept of competence is central; to be able to make their knowledge applicable, valuable and useful for the self and others.’ (POS, 2007: 10).
Entrepreneurial education ‘to lite souls’ • Lack of schedule • Daily ‘circle discussion’ • Turning education upside down (e.g. Maori invitation) • Taking initiatives – not expecting authorities to set boundaries • From teachers to co-creators/ companions/ coaches • From presentations to lectures. • Exposing oneself to uncomfortable situations
Stoned Unquenchable Souls In our earlier school experience we often felt like curling stones. Someone almost always cleared our path. Every lesson was planned beforehand and the problems we had to face were formulated by someone else. In our experience our responsibilities included remembering to bring gym clothes once or twice a week, do our home work, study for tests, and be on time for class. It did not occur to us that we were responsible for our own learning. We understand by now that this is not a unique experience but it reflects the situation in many Swedish schools and in today’s world (POS, 2007, p. 27, our translation)
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Shaping the self-securing entrepreneurial student • The students become convinced that the traditional school system had destroyed their abilities to become secure. • Their vulnerability is turned into an invincible capacity through which they can talk ‘nicely’ about entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial education. • The students now position themselves in a more “correct description of reality” – according to the the concept of ‘”enthusiastic souls”. • From this reality follows that they are continuously insecure. Thereby they can spread the solution for how this situation can be unlocked: entrepreneurship. Education. => Entrepreneurship education becomes (the only) way to provide a real sense of security.
Second critical turn in entrepreneurship education • The entrepreneurial self is fostered to feel selfconfidence through empowerment so that she can take care of herself and her ideas. • This entrepreneurial self is called on to solve previous governmental problems when s/he responds to the criticism of capitalistic entrepreneurship. • => Security, in this sense, is not to be provided by the state (and traditional welfare system), but by how the students ensure that others are encouraged to accept insecurities, take action and change their behavior.
Vulnerability Weaknessess
The absorbed student-
The alert student looking for opportunities
Potentiality Activity Responsibility
The conventional teacher who… “I want to teach you something teacher” -
The coaching and flexible teacher
Gender Struggles/Resistance Structural knowledge
Affirmative action The Individual
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Democracy Solidarity
Entrepreneurialism: Everyone must swim in the entrepreneurial current…
Entrepreneurship education
Shall we give it up now?
Critical entrepreneurship education: adopting a critical approach in the classroom 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Setting the scene Bringing reflexivity into the classroom Bringing philosophy into the classroom Challenging students Managing provocations
6. Moving critique through education
Don’t forget to teach ABOUT entrepreneurship! Don’t forget to teach about entrepreneurship in efforts to bring students a sense of being ‘in’ entrepreneurship, to make them prepared ‘for’ (working) life’ and to enthuse them with a ‘through’ pedagogy. Because if we now must swim in the entrepreneurial current – could we find new ways to swim? Could we sit on the grass next to the current for a while? Is there time for play in the current?...
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