Abstract
Revitalising Entrepreneurship Education is a collection of papers that initially developed from a symposium focussed upon ‘how to educate entrepreneurship education’ (p. xxv). The resulting book brings together a range of authors who utilise different theoretical and pedagogical perspectives to discuss their own practice and insights for developing a critical entrepreneurship education. It is comprised of five thematic sections, although in general the chapters share similar concerns of seeking to innovate, question and reflect within an entrepreneurship education course.
The book begins with two forewords and a prologue that introduce the idea and importance of critical perspectives on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education. The Introduction by the book’s editors then establishes this in relation to a means of revitalising practice by, for example, questioning entrepreneurship as a ‘Western world discourse that is classed, gendered, ethnocentric and thus excluding’ (p. 3) and ‘providing students with a space where it [entrepreneurship] can be reconstructed’ (p. 8). In the final chapter of this introductory section, Tunstall adds a further perspective on the potential for critical entrepreneurship education, specifically focussed on debates around the entrepreneurial university and centred on a student protest asking the question ‘education or exploitation?’ (p. 25).
The second part of the book, focussed on evoking, begins with a chapter by Lindbergh and Schwartz that focuses on entrepreneurship as a form of social change. The authors describe a course they deliver in which, in line with the framing of a critical entrepreneurship education across the book, they engage the students with thinking about entrepreneurship in terms of society and not just economic considerations. Achtenhagen and Johannisson then describe activities they have delivered that focus upon different forms of reflexivity, of students reflecting on themselves and their self-awareness within this wider social context. The authors emphasise a theme that runs throughout the book: the importance of educators themselves continually being enterprising in their approaches, for example, in the use of blogs as an alternative means to develop reflexivity. The final chapter in this section, by Jansson, Lek and McGrath, discusses the development of entrepreneuring within a healthcare education programme. The authors describe an attempt to draw out entrepreneurship as a process that emphasises innovation and creativity and encourages students to question their assumptions. In this discussion, it is not so much the concept of entrepreneurship or entrepreneuring that is open to critique but how it is extended into new contexts and organisational fields.
The third section of the book (‘On Moving’) begins with a chapter by Seanor that discusses the teaching of critical entrepreneurship and how ‘to move students from an area they know, to encourage them to look at the world and its problems […] from an alternative approach as a way of seeing entrepreneurial processes’ (p. 100). Seanor argues that such an approach makes manifest the tensions and contradictions in entrepreneurial processes but describes, in resonant detail, the challenges encountered in delivering such a course to students, placed within the context of changing higher education in the UK. Chapter 6 (Johnsen et al.) argues for the value of an approach they call ‘conceptual activism’, defined as ‘a way of teaching that aims to utilise philosophical concepts in the classroom for the purpose of unlocking alternative viewpoints’ (p. 119) and as an approach to learning with the educator, not simply through instruction.
The section ‘On Challenging’ develops the potential for challenging students’ assumptions and a critique of entrepreneurship education suggested by some of the earlier chapters. Jones approaches this through the adoption of a critical feminist pedagogy, presenting another open and fascinating account of some of the challenges (and opportunities) in delivering more critically engaged entrepreneurship education. In Chapter 8, Skoglund and Berglund focus on the idea of an entrepreneurial self, drawing on the work of Foucault in a postgraduate course where students are encouraged to consider alternative entrepreneurships. This section concludes with a chapter by Resch, Hoyer and Steyaert that discusses the iterative development of a postgraduate course on entrepreneurship and creativity. They describe their approach to an ‘interventionist pedagogy’ (p. 190), from disrupting the classroom and banning PowerPoint to walking tours outside the university and the use of improvisatory theatre and dance. The authors explain how the teaching staff work collaboratively and playfully to seek ‘an elusive balance between deliberate planning and flexible improvisation’ (p. 179) that can ‘result in a fumbling reinvention of teaching itself’ (p. 191).
The final section, ‘On Dialogues’, focuses on the need for interaction and openness in taking both students and educators out of their comfort zones. Chapter 10 by Verduijn presents a processual focus that utilises student film projects that are explored through peer evaluation as a means to develop a productive dialogue. Verduijn here identifies a key role for the educator in stimulating and facilitating this dialogue. Chapter 11 by Wettermark et al. then presents a development of the course introduced in Chapter 8, here with a focus on mutual learning between educator and students. In particular, they draw out the need for both parties to embrace the potential for vulnerability.
The book concludes with a brief epilogue by Hytti that places the chapters in the wider context of changes in higher education, for example, in terms of the increasing the importance placed on employability and the student as consumer. Hytti emphasises the need to retain traditional strengths of criticality and reflexivity and suggests, and I concur, that the book is a valuable resource to achieve this in entrepreneurship education. There remains the scope for the debates introduced here to continue through a wider range of perspectives, and the book could have instigated greater (or more explicit) debate between the chapters. Nonetheless, this book presents a range of critical perspectives and a varied consideration of entrepreneurship education with detailed case studies and personal reflections. In this way, the collected chapters provide fascinating examples of innovative approaches that may help to revitalise entrepreneurship education.