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This article examines the spread of the neo-liberal educational policy in Finnish schools by considering entrepreneurship education. We examined the kinds of gendered and classed enterprising selves that were narrated in the Finnish writing competition Good Enterprise! written by pupils in the 9th grade of comprehensive school. In their narratives of enterprising selves, the pupils constructed the middleclass version of the self, where the person was not contingent upon external effects but an autonomous self-governing individual. Moreover, the possible selves of boys matched the culturally valued representations of the autonomous, risk-taking entrepreneurial individual more closely than the self-representations of girls did. However, it was especially the boys' narratives of modest entrepreneurship with the traditional virtues of the respectable citizen that were successful in the competition. This finding is in conflict with the educational policies of the European Union, which call for risk-taking abilities and competition as pre-conditions for achieving progress.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to critically investigate how collective identity is constructed and regulated by board members and other active members of student entrepreneurship societies (ESs). Design/methodology/approach A discursive analysis focusing on collective identity construction and regulation based on focus group discussions in two student-led Finnish ESs affiliated with higher education institutions (HEIs). Findings ES members construct and regulate collective entrepreneurial identity based on a shared narrative of entrepreneurship and the affective state of positive energy and thinking, i.e. “positive buzz.” Being entrepreneurial was constructed as having the right kind of mentality to cope with uncertain and rapidly changing working life and to break free of old moulds of working. The shared narrative was coherent, and critical reflection on the values or risks of entrepreneurship was mainly silenced. Research limitations/implications As ESs are a relatively new phenomenon future research could explore ESs in different cultural and regional contexts and compare the identity construction and regulation of ES student members and non-members. Practical implications Strong collective identity and sense of commitment to doing things together may mitigate the pressures of being entrepreneurial and taking charge of one’s life. Social implications Educational practice and research could benefit from better understanding of the informal context in which entrepreneurship education takes place. Originality/value The paper contributes to the relatively new research stream on ESs as student-led entrepreneurial organizations in HEIs. The research demonstrates how ES members participate in constructing a collective and coherent identity that is regulated by shared values and a positive state of mind. This study extends the understanding of ESs from the functional perspective to viewing them as a social community. It contributes to the definition of ESs and the self-understanding of ES actors.

In this ethnographic research, we explore the entrepreneurial narratives performed by entrepreneurs (from outside academia) as desirable identity-building models for Finnish university students during an Entrepreneurship Week course. We also reflect on the accessibility of these identity models for students in terms of gender, class, and education. Our analysis shows that, although the entrepreneurs were positioned as role models for all students, through performances of masculine entrepreneurial identities with certain kinds of special talents and social divisions between groups (i.e., female entrepreneurs, wageworkers, and researchers in ivory towers), it was apparent that not all university students are entrepreneurial types. In addition, the performed narratives challenged the traditional interpretations of what it means to be an academically educated graduate in working life (e.g., in terms of upward mobility). We conclude that Entrepreneurship Week was more about training an entrepreneurial workforce than acquiring skills needed in business. Our study provides a critical perspective both on how neoliberal governance operates in entrepreneurship education and on what kinds of entrepreneurial identities future higher education graduates should possess. We suggest that academics should take an active role in creating more inclusive narratives and identity-building models for academic entrepreneurship.