Yet it is not for denying the will and the capacity of each human being to assert him/herself by
an entrepreneurial attitude. Nor shall we deny those who have initiative and creativity to open
new ways of enriching our societies with their value. The case is that for ensuring competitive,
innovative, sustainable, inclusive and just societies, as the European Commission so well puts it,
takes us to the current dilemma of indefinite growth without really having indefinite resources;
an issue that takes us to face the environmental problems as well as the need for equity of
growth.
So being, we now must address at the same time the problem of entrepreneurship and
sustainability, not just as problems but as scopes of education, i. e., entrepreneurship and
sustainability education. An antinomy not commonly considered but often disregard or even
hidden. Nevertheless, we also have to tackle the growing demand, even if we should control it,
we have to tackle, human ambition even if it should be restraint. Thus we must pursue a line of
endeavor or entrepreneurship balanced with a line of respect for difference and diversity as core
issues of sustainability

Reis, Carlos Francisco de Sousa

Estudo Geral

 Journal for Educators, Teachers and Trainers JETT, Vol. 6 (2); ISSN: 1989-9572    
 
6
 
 
Journal for Educators, Teachers and Trainers, Vol. 6 (2) 
ISSN 1989 – 9572 
 
http://www.ugr.es/~jett/index.php 
 
EDITORIAL 
 
Entrepreneurship education. Insights on current challenges 
 
Educación emprendedora. Reflexiones sobre los desafíos actuales 
 
 
Carlos Francisco de Sousa Reis, University of Coimbra, Portugal  
csreis@uc.pt 
 
 
The word “entrepreneurship” is clearly traced from the french noun “entrepreneur” (an 
undertaker or contracter) as well as from the verb “entreprende” (to undertake, start, initiate). 
But also in Portuguese and Spanish can we find the homologue “empreendedor”, a simple 
result from the way Latin languages have to produce it by joining “em”, referring to a something 
and “prehendere”, meaning to catch, capture, hold or undertake, which allows one to easily 
produce the word “emprenhendere”: to undertake. Moreover, it is even possible to trace back 
the term to the Sanskript “antha prena”, referring to someone self-motivated and sounding very 
much alike our contemporary common expression. 
 
Approaching the subject by the etymological way –how fallible it may be–, give us the 
opportunity to advance a first stance on the matter. To be an entrepreneur could just result from 
being someone with substantial initiative and creativity for undertaking any kind of project that 
one may propose –which arises an ethical issue– to oneself or involving others, although not 
necessarily in the realm of business. This may prevent us letting the concept to be captured by 
a hegemonic understanding, which is nowadays prevalent, and installs the totalitarianism of an 
“instrumental rationality” (Habermas, 1968) or “performativitiy”, in the words of Lyotard (1984), 
for a consumerist society and in search of a paradoxical happiness (Lipovetsky, 2006).  
 
Therefore, as we have tried to show elsewhere (Reis & Formosinho, 2014), we should not 
accept that something corresponding to an entrepreneurship attitude or ability could be placed 
above the core educational teleological aims like creativity or happiness, which are, in our point 
of view, of a superior order. That would be to take the means for the ends, thus short-circuiting 
the critical teleological chain that must be discussed as such, while it would pull the whole 
education system to fall very quickly into a perspective that directly links schools to companies, 
thus imposing to schools the role of supplying workers for the markets, namely entrepreneurs. 
However, regardless of the current dominating “managerialistic” scope, education has to 
address a multidimensional purpose of qualification, socialization and subjectification – a 
domain that “has to do with the way in which children and young people come to exist as 
subjects of initiative and responsibility rather than as objects of the actions of others” (Biesta, 
2015, 77); meaning this that education ought, above all, to address the empowerment and the 
emancipation of living minds.  
 
Yet it is also meaningful, for our case, that we are beings of endeavours, of projects, through 
which we project ourselves. From far ages and distant places we got innumerous examples of 
 Journal for Educators, Teachers and Trainers JETT, Vol. 6 (2); ISSN: 1989-9572    
 
7
breakthrough achievements of all kinds, because it is in human nature to always try to reach 
beyond. For instance, the registered fact that Marco Polo (1254-1324) attempted to establish a 
trade route to the East in order to sell the goods of a man (a capitalist), while running physical 
and emotional risks in his endeavors, thus becoming known as "the entrepreneurial adventurer" 
(Dornelas, 2008, 14). In the same sense, Richard Cantillon (1680-1734) used the term 
entrepreneurship for distinguishing the entrepreneur (the one who takes risks) from the 
capitalist (the one that provides the capital). He named entrepreneurs those who take risks and 
buy raw materials, usually an agricultural product with a determined price that should be 
improved. Besides, one can also distinguish between his approach and the use made by Jean 
Baptiste Say (1767-1832), a French economist, that apply the term "entrepreneur" to someone 
considered more of a "planner" (Brewer, 1992). 
 
There should be no surprise though that in the late nineteenth century Cantillon was appointed 
by William Stanley Jevons, Henry Higgs, Joseph Schumpeter and Friedrich Hayek as the father 
of business economics, liberal and neoliberal, would we say. The backbone of nowadays 
globalized neoliberal capitalism that is taking education, health and justice as goods instead of 
rights, while work is becoming more and more precarious. Besides, neoliberalism is also 
disseminating an ideology that inculpates unemployed people for a personal condition much 
more due to stances played at a macro-level dimension, while imputing each citizen the 
responsibility of creating his/her own employment. And that is when we come to have to deal 
with entrepreneurship as a panacea for all economic problems, thus establishing an imaginary 
framework in which everyone could (should!) be considered a player, if one so wish, of game, of 
struggling for a place in a world of infinite resources. 
 
Yet it is not for denying the will and the capacity of each human being to assert him/herself by 
an entrepreneurial attitude. Nor shall we deny those who have initiative and creativity to open 
new ways of enriching our societies with their value. The case is that for ensuring competitive, 
innovative, sustainable, inclusive and just societies, as the European Commission so well puts it, 
takes us to the current dilemma of indefinite growth without really having indefinite resources; 
an issue that takes us to face the environmental problems as well as the need for equity of 
growth. 
 
So being, we now must address at the same time the problem of entrepreneurship and 
sustainability, not just as problems but as scopes of education, i. e., entrepreneurship and 
sustainability education. An antinomy not commonly considered but often disregard or even 
hidden. Nevertheless, we also have to tackle the growing demand, even if we should control it, 
we have to tackle, human ambition even if it should be restraint. Thus we must pursue a line of 
endeavor or entrepreneurship balanced with a line of respect for difference and diversity as core 
issues of sustainability. 
 
Europe, as a nation of free nations, has shown awareness about the growth-justice dilemma by 
supporting European entrepreneurship as well as citizenship education starting from a 
propaedeutic level, namely at initial teacher education. This is where one must start if one wants 
to develop rooted and long lasting attitudes. I have personally experience the European Union 
effort while participating in Erasmus Intensive Programmes on both (sustainability an 
entrepreneurship) issues and having the privilege to participate in the Dublin European 
Workshop for ‘Educators of Teachers on Entrepreneurship in Education’ (Ireland, 2-4 May 
2012).
1
 Fortunately, I had also the pleasure to meet at that event Malcolm Hoare and other 
colleagues that helped me organizing the Conference on Enabling Teachers for 
Entrepreneurship Education 2013 (ENTENP 2013).
2
 Especially, we all owe José Gijón Puerta 
                                                 
1
 Developed after the visionary meeting that the Budapest Agenda on Enabling Teachers for Entrepreneurship 
Education brought forth (European Commission, 2011). 
2
 For all their generosity, here and now, I must acknowledge once again the support given from Cristina Pereira(Castelo 
Branco Polytechnic Institute), Dana Redford (Oporto Catholic University), Dores Formosinho (Coimbra University), 
Eduarda Ferreira (Guarda Polytechnic Institute), Fátima Paixão (Castelo Branco Polytechnic Institute), José Gijón 
Puerta (Granada University), Malcolm Hoare (Warwick University), Manuel Fernández Cruz (Granada University), Maria 
do Carmo Vieira da Silva (Universidade Nova de Lisboa), Maria Margarida Afonso (Castelo Branco Polytechnic 
Institute), Mohamed El Homrani (Granada University Pedro Tadeu (Guarda Polytechnic Institute), Teresa Gonçalves 
(Viana do Castelo Polytechnic Institute), Teresa Paiva (Guarda Polytechnic Institute). 
 Journal for Educators, Teachers and Trainers JETT, Vol. 6 (2); ISSN: 1989-9572    
 
8
the stamina to bear the torch and taken the process a step further by organizing ENTENP 2014, 
at Granada University, which was a breaking through event that gave birth to a widen 
partnership, from which we are expecting great achievements. Since this last meeting we have 
encourage a group of experts to come up with papers that our readers can now take in 
consideration for further developments as entrepreneurs –we expect them to be–, not just in a 
simple egotist advance but also aiming to the greater good of mankind. 
 
This issue of the Journal for Educators, Teachers and Trainers (JETT) presents a broad 
spectrum of insights on entrepreneurship education (EE) we hope it could be a contribute to 
help scholars and practitioners tackling current challenges and opening new paths. The first 
three papers form a section that explores some EE theoretical issues; while the second group 
focuses in the practical realm. A third group also explores concrete issues regarding different 
fields of appliance of EE and the last one, while considering entrepreneurship of small or micro 
companies give us a strong critical reading of a misleading mainstream understanding of the 
concept, thus opening up the subject to a broader and more complex approach. 
 
The first paper considers the impact on the institutional culture and pedagogy necessary to 
implement the changes indicated by the so called Budapest Agenda, while introducing the 
concept of the entrepreneurial school as a prerequisite for change as well as a strategy for 
designing appropriate teacher professional development. Deepening a close connected subject, 
the second paper starts with the baseline goal of improving EE and training as set out by the 
European Commission, highlighting the challenges that are faced in fostering an entrepreneurial 
attitude within educational institutions, namely the need to support teachers through training 
programs that pursue a long-term policy commitment simultaneously creative and well-
conceived. A good pedagogical appointment is presented by the third paper that focuses on 
explaining how individual differences and alternative assessment techniques could be used by 
entrepreneurial teachers to implement entrepreneurial teaching. 
 
The forth paper puts in perspective a robust model of a pilot EE programme for the new junior 
cycle curriculum, capable of extended implementation across all years of second level 
education. In particular, the study identifies the key elements of its conceptualisation and 
structure, to implement it as an integral and holistic contribution to a sustainable EE input, by 
relying in a pilot programme developed in a flagship school that suggests a novel and credible 
way to integrate EE into the full curriculum, something unprecedented in Ireland. The paper also 
highlights the necessary supports and the crucial importance of a broad yet precise definition of 
EE in line with Irish and EU parameters that will lead to credible learning outcomes for individual 
students, the economy and society as a whole. For its part, the fifth paper analyzes 
entrepreneurial education in higher education, giving the example of two centers (Learning and 
Development Center for Children – CeADIn and Science, Tradition & Culture Center – CT&C), 
that want to educate children, youth and adults for entrepreneurship, involving in the process 
the students of teachers’ education courses. Also in the same line of practical concern, the sixth 
paper points out what makes the originality of Reims Champagne-Ardenne University way of 
teaching entrepreneurship. 
 
The seventh paper describes two theories, the discovery theory and the creation theory, in order 
to undertake a discussion of some of their broader theoretical implications for the fields of 
entrepreneurship and strategic management. In particular the paper addresses the implications 
for social entrepreneurship theory and management practice, and discusses some policy 
directions. As to the eighth paper, it endorses a comprehensive review of the different 
approaches and definitions associated to Entrepreneurship in order to establish the basis for a 
wide analysis of immigrant Entrepreneurship reality, including motivations, abilities and specific 
challenges to achieve success. With the ninth paper the reader may get aware of the structural 
characteristics of the Andalusian entrepreneurial model in comparison with other Spanish 
regions, namely the qualitative profile of the structural weaknesses of the existing businesses 
and their entrepreneurs, which is the basis for supporting a differential proposition for an 
embedded education towards entrepreneurship, by identifying the content and pedagogical 
techniques necessary to overcome the referred weaknesses. Closing this third section, the last 
paper is a special case that gives us a strong critical counterpoint of Entrepreneurship, while 
 Journal for Educators, Teachers and Trainers JETT, Vol. 6 (2); ISSN: 1989-9572    
 
9
considered as a specific individual inclination, thus misleadingly conceived as being able to 
render the small enterprise competitive in the contemporary capitalism arena. Avoiding 
criticizing the small business or the entrepreneur in themselves, it deconstructs the ideological 
meaning that structures the discourses used to conform the agent and his “thinking style”. The 
paper concludes by showing that the importance granted to certain aspects such as disposition 
to risk, creative ability and adaptation to scenery changes are touted as being “natural”, along 
with the assumption by the individual of all responsibility for what happens in his entrepreneurial 
action, while thus obtaining the legitimation of the functionality of the small enterprise 
concerning the systemic reproduction of contemporary capitalism. 
 
 
References 
 
Biesta, G. (2015) What is education for? On good education, teacher judgment and education 
professionalism, European Journal of Education, 50: 1, 75-87. 
Brewer, A. (1992). Richard Cantillon: Pioneer of economic theory. London: Routledge. 
Dornelas, J. C. A. (2008). Empreendedorismo - Transformando idéias em negócios. Rio de 
Janeiro: Elsevier. 
European Commission (2011). Entrepreneurship Education: Enabling Teachers as a Critical 
Success Factor “A report on Teacher Education and Training to prepare teachers for the 
challenge of entrepreneurship education.” Bruxelles: European Union. Retrieved from 
http://www.tesguide.eu/pt/policy-strategy/enabling-teachers-as-a-critical-success-
factor.htm 
Habermas, J. (1968). Técnica e ciência como ideologia. Lisboa: Edições 70. 
Lipovetsky, G. (2007). A felicidade paradoxal. Ensaio sobre a sociedade do hiperconsumo: 
Edições 70. 
Lyotard, J.F. (1984). The postmodern condition: A report on knowledge. Minneapolis: University 
of Minnesota Press. 
Reis, C. & Formosinho (2014). Entrepreneurship education and problema-based learning. I. J. 
Puerta & P: Sempere (Coords.), Book of Papers. Conference on Enabling Teachers for 
Entrepreneurship Education (ENTENP2014) (pp. 39-48). Granada: Editorial Universidad 
de Granada. 
 


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