Teachers’ reflections on entrepreneurship education: their understanding and practices

“Not Everyone is Cut Out to be the Entrepreneur Type”: How Finnish School Teachers Construct the Meaning of Entrepreneurship Education and the Related Abilities of the Pupils

“…Our results suggest that entrepreneurship is a multifaceted and dilemmatic concept for teachers partly because the meanings of entrepreneurship education are produced within competing discursive frames. The teachers are ready to accept the aim of encouraging internal entrepreneurship because they consider it to be in line with the fundamental aims of basic education, but they challenge the aim of promoting business skills in schools (see also Backström-Widjeskog, 2010;Seikkula-Leino et al, 2010). The ideal of educating enterprising and entrepreneurial citizens does not seem to settle without complexities in the Finnish school context, particularly because in the teachers' views this ideal is "translated" into the school's hegemonic discourse of the good student.…”

“…Interviewee 9 (a woman): From the point of view of the teacher, first of all it would be great if the kids did their best and, if you think of the Finnish society, it would be surrounding society at large; instead, fostering knowledge of the business world is not included in the aims of basic education (Backström-Widjeskog, 2010;Seikkula-Leino et al, 2010). 8 In the English language "entrepreneur" refers to growth-oriented entrepreneurship and the term "small-business owner" means to have a small business.…”

On entrepreneurship, in a different voice? Finnish entrepreneurship education and pupils’ critical narratives of the entrepreneur

“…The previous studies suggest that the Finnish as well as Swedish teachers are confused by and even resistant to the business-related aspects of entrepreneurship education (e.g. Leffler 2009;Backström-Widjeskog 2010;Seikkula-Leino et al 2010). For example, the Finnish school teachers make a clear distinction between the aim of promoting a general enterprising attitude and the aim of fostering business skills.…”

Enhancing students’ latent nascent entrepreneurship in basic education

“…As recommended in the Finnish national curriculum, regardless of the subject, every teacher should emphasize entrepreneurialism as part of the students' increasing transversal competence (FNBE, 2014). However, Ruskovaara and Pihkala (2013) and Seikkula-Leino et al (2013) stated that the biggest challenge in developing EE in basic education seem to be teachers' low competence in EE. Thus, in the schools in the studied cases, it is easy to understand why there were no interventions for EE other than the examined ones.…”

“…Using the questions in Fayolle's (2013, p. 694) generic teaching model in EE, this study identified the crucial points that should be developed to enable students to become aware of their LNE even in basic education. Based on previous findings, Finnish basic education teachers' and students' source of knowledge about entrepreneurship is somewhat weak and divided (Ruskovaara and Pihkala, 2013;Seikkula-Leino et al, 2013). Connections to real entrepreneurship, the social construction of knowledge, and competence in entrepreneurship seem to be essential elements in understanding the phenomenon of entrepreneurship (Jones and Matlay, 2011;Gemmell et al, 2012;Pittaway and Cope, 2007;Ruskovaara and Pihkala, 2013).…”