Street Challenge Pedagogy: How Walking Down Main Street Broadens Entrepreneurship and Ecosystem Perspectives

Abstract

Street Challenge is a community engaged, place-based, experiential learning pedagogical framework that heightens students’ understanding of the ecosystems entrepreneurs work within. Entrepreneurship courses often focus on students as future entrepreneurs, taking the perspective of business owners as independent agents. Ecosystem awareness, however, allows students to develop broader perspectives about entrepreneurs and their own goals by adding a broader context. We present an overview of several exercises and projects used to explore the facets of a business district, which we use as an example and an analogy of business or community ecosystems. Implementation of Street Challenge in different locations, courses, and modalities demonstrated that the method can be adapted and customized to fit a variety of entrepreneurship education needs and intended learning outcomes. Using local neighborhoods as tangible contexts for teaching entrepreneurship within ecosystems, as well as primary research and effective communication skills, is highly effective. Equipping students with perspectives and conceptual frameworks to address future career situations as self-employed professionals or entrepreneurs is a worthwhile endeavor in itself; with Street Challenge students also discover the value of civic engagement and a sense of agency in addressing ecosystem or community challenges.