A Holistic Social Constructionist perspective to Enterprise Education

Purpose – Drawing on the Gestalt approach this article proposes a holistic framework for enterprise education (EE) research based on Social Constructionism, illustrating how the latter supports research into experiential learning in EE in 7 UK Higher Education (HE) pharmacy schools. Design/ Methodology/ Approach – This paper is based on a qualitative empirical study involving educators in UK Higher Education Institution (HEI) pharmacy schools in semi-structured interviews, and investigates the delivery of EE through experiential learning approaches. Social Constructionism is proposed as a suitable underlying philosophical paradigm. Findings – A Social Constructionism paradigm, which adopts relative realism ontology, transactional epistemology, and Gadamer’s Hermeneutic Phenomenology, offers a relevant, multi-perspectival philosophical foundation for EE research, supporting transactional relationships within contexts of multiple possibilities. Research limitations/implications – Social Constructionism does not necessarily support the individualistic paradigm, as advocated by Constructivists; and the values associated with the former encourage a more collaborative and cooperative approach different from the latter. Practical implications –The paper supports the understanding that applying experiential learning through inter-disciplinary and inter-professional learning is regarded as an approach beneficial for educators, institutions and learners, within the context of EE. Originality/ value – This paper offers a holistic conceptual framework of Social Constructionism that draws on the ‘Gestalt Approach’, and highlights the harmony between the ontological, epistemological and methodological underpinnings of Social Constructionism. The paper demonstrates the relevance of the proposed framework in EE research within the context of an empirical study, which is different in that it focuses on the delivery aspect of EE by considering the views of the providers (educators), an hitherto under-researched area. Paper type – Research paper Key words: Enterprise education, research philosophy, Social Constructionism, relative realism ontology, transactional epistemology, Gadamer’s Hermeneutic Phenomenology, Gestalt approach

Pathways to Progress: A Tangible Impact on Youth Economic Opportunity

The inaugural Issue Brief, Pathways to Progress: Setting the Stage for Impact (June 2015), described the Citi Foundation's goals in each of these impact areas and early progress. The second Issue Brief, Pathways to Progress: The Portfolio and the Field of Youth Economic Opportunity (April 2016), focused on impact in the field; including an overview of trends in the youth economic opportunity field, and how the Pathways to Progress grantees are responding to and contributing to these trends. The third Issue Brief, Pathways to Progress: Forging Strategies to Broaden Impact (November 2016), focused on organizational and programmatic impacts including scaling and program adaptation.This Issue Brief is the fourth and final in the Pathways to Progress series. In this Brief, we focus on the impact of the five flagship Pathways to Progress grantees on the youth they have served, and provide a retrospective look at the progress and select lessons from the first three years of the investment

Make Your Job Summer Program: A Report to the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship

Make Your Job Summer Program condenses the material in NFTE's year-long high school curriculum into an intensive two-week course. Over the course of these two weeks, from 9-5 pm each day, students learn about businesses and entrepreneurship while simultaneously designing their business plans. At the end of the program, students present their business plans to a panel of judges to compete for seed money. At two of the 18 sites, NFTE also offered an 8- 10 week version of the program called Startup Summer. Startup Summer is for students who already participated in NFTE during the school year and takes the program a step further by helping them execute their business plans. Students in Startup Summer continue to receive support in launching their businesses into the school year. 378 students participated in the BizCamps and 77 participated in Startup Summer (at the Los Angeles and New York City sites). Although some sites had run NFTE-related summer programs in prior years, other sites were running the summer program for the first time. Two of these BizCamps (Girl Empower BizCamps) served female students exclusively.Our research examines both the impact and implementation of the program and considers:- the types of students who enrolled in the program and why;- how the students experienced the program;- the perceived match between program design and student backgrounds and abilities;- how staff understood the goals and expectations of the program;- the capacities and resources that supported implementation;- the challenges experienced in delivering the program; and- how the program was adapted across sites

Teaching teachers in effectual entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education is seen by all kind of people to be important for economic growth. Teaching entrepreneurship needs another approach. Active learning and the constructivism is mostly seen as essential. Other elements that are influencing the teaching process are the competences, the culture and the teacher. So the teacher must be capable of using other methods and theory as he is used to. Effectuation, constructivism and andragogy are the key elements for the training of entrepreneurial teachers. From that perspective there has been made an education program that will start in September 2013 for teachers at universities of applied science. Until that time there are being held some minor experiments on parts of the program

Internationalisation strategy implemented through Faculty Exchange: Strategic Entrepreneurship in a “new” United Kingdom University

The promotion of international staff mobility is a founding principle of the ‘Bologna Process’, designed to create a converged system of higher education across Europe as it is subjected to increasing globalisation. Many UK ‘new’ (ie post-1992) universities are engaged in the development of internationalisation and globalisation strategies which include staff exchange. Meanwhile, the failure to execute strategy is increasingly acknowledged as a major problem in organisational performance. Using a first-, second and third-person Insider Action Research (AR) approach, six chronological cycles of AR were enacted over a 28 month period in order to organise and implement an international staff exchange between universities in the UK and France. Data generated were subjected to a double process of analysis – four phase analysis and a meta-cycle of enquiry - in order to propose aspects of strategy execution through strategic entrepreneurship within the constraints of a post-1992 university business school in the UK. Concepts from the theoretical literature in three domains - entrepreneurship in higher education, globalisation of higher education and strategy execution through strategic entrepreneurship – are combined with the research analysis to propose that ‘strategic entrepreneurs’ can execute the riskier elements of an internationalisation strategy, such as staff exchange. This work broadens AR from education into strategic management. It goes beyond the common, well-intentioned and yet vague statements involving the ‘encouragement’ of international staff exchange to propose the elements of execution through strategic entrepreneurship

The Analysis of Entrepreneurship Education Profile For Educatioanal Institutions of Hihger Education in Yogyakarta

ABSTRACT Purpose: This study aims to describe entrepreneurship education profile (EE Profile) of the five LPTKs in DIY. The research based on strategic role of EE in generating creative entrepreneurs who meets 21st century skills. The main target of the study was to describe; (1). Characteristics of lecturers and students, (2) Competencies to be developed, (3). Learning process, (4). Assessment to be used, (5). Needs of improvement. Methods: The study used quantitative approach this type of survey. The populations were lecturers and students participating in the course come from five LPTK. Data was collected by questionnaire and group discussions (FGD). This study used primary and secondary data collected from 48 lecturers of enterpreneurship and 246 students who joined in the entrepreneurship course. Data was analyzed using simple frequency analysis technique for quantitative data and descritive analysis for the qualitative data. Findings: The results revealed that: (1). Lecturers have minimum teaching experience (on average, 3.45 years). Most of the lecturers hold master degree but 33% of the total lecturers said not match to teach entrepreneurship related with their qualification. Only half of them who have had a certificate in entrepreneurship, but the training was less than 33 % of the total lecturers. Majority of the students (78%) has had appropriate background to be trained on entrepreneurship; unfortunately there are only a few who got training seriously. A few of students (19%) hold a certificate on entrepreneurship but most of them felt less adequate (2). Competencies tend to more focused on creativity and innovation, but less concerned to 21st centuryespecially on collaboration and communication. (3). Majority of students felt impressed that the learning occur innovatively, but students said the learning material was still out of date. ICT was not sufficiently integrated in the learning process to enrich learning materials and process. EE was still taught separately between theory and practice in an average composition of about 57% of theory and 43% of practice, (4). Assessments were still dominated by written tests, even used to assess skills as creativity and innovation that were not appropriate (5). Lecturers and students expressed need to learning model that emphasizes the practice more and reduces the theory. Project based learning tended to be developed and raised as alternative model for EE

Enterprise education:towards a framework for effective engagement with the learners of today

Purpose: The aims of this exploratory research are to examine young learner attitudes towards enterprise education within the context of a University led initiative to construct a sustainable framework which benefits identified stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach: The research used self-completed questionnaires with 117 Business Studies students in Stages S4, S5 and S6 from secondary schools across Dundee and Business students from Years 1, 2, 3 and 4 at one University in Dundee, Scotland. Findings: The research reveals that respondents positively engage with enterprise education and felt that their project management, creative thinking, communication skills and confidence were enhanced by the activity of real-world business challenges. The findings support the notion that an enterprising spine embedded in the academic curriculum better equip the learner with the necessary hard and soft skills required for the employment market but not necessarily to be entrepreneurial. Research limitations/implications: A limitation of this research was the sample size, which although representative of the pupil and student cohorts associated to the various stages of education being studied at the particular time of data collection, and is suitable for an exploratory study, the research would have benefited from being both larger and complimented by more of a qualitative component beyond the inclusion of open-ended questions. Practical implications: As an exploratory study which informs a wider comparative study into enterprise education, the research examines learner’s perspectives and the measures they feel are required for effective engagement with enterprise education activities in schools and Universities. The findings should assist education providers deliver a better learning experience and the learners with improved enterprising and social skills, particularly the building of confidence. Originality/value: The research should prove useful to educational establishments who are considering the implementation of, or further engagement with, enterprise education and involvement with the business community and how such activities impact on their learners

Sustaining competing professional identities: Measuring action learning 'outcomes' in an educational context.

This paper builds on an initial investigation of the process of action learning in a university Management School in New Zealand, where the focus is on sustainability and innovation. Students are encouraged to engage with entrepreneurial practice and develop critical thinking skills. In this study, we recognise the impact of the organisational context both on our own professional practice as teaching staff and on learning outcomes for staff and students. The emergent nature of action learning outcomes makes the measurement of their effectiveness problematic. Research questions cannot be determined at the outset but are generated in consultation with the research participants. Despite aiming to be collaborative, our focus groups and interviews made explicit the tensions existing in the professional identities of staff. Their expert knowledge as researchers and teachers was challenged by an action learning approach. Consequently, this paper is an example of ongoing critical reflective practice. We conclude that measuring the effectiveness of action learning outcomes is context-dependent and consider the implications for the teaching of critical management studies. The process of action learning must be considered a key outcome. Individual reflection on professional identity and practice may be as important as the organisational learning and explicit knowledge gained