The Role and Value of the Educator in Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Educator: Some Reflections from a Workshop
There have been a number of recent publications, such as the QAA guidelines on enterprise and entrepreneurship education and the EntreComp framework, which provide us, as educators, with useful resources for understanding the enterprise journey of a student whilst in higher education.
However, in comparison, there has been less focus on what we need to know to deliver an effective experience. The development of a set of occupational standards for enterprise and entrepreneurship educators earlier in the year highlighted that there are a number of key areas of ‘need to know’ facing enterprise and entrepreneurship educators including co-creating the education experience with others, measuring the value of enterprise education and responding to problems and predicaments.
So a lunchtime workshop at the ISBE conference, with a view of the Eiffel Tower and the River Seine, provided an opportunity for a group of educators to unpack these “need to know’s” and reflect upon how can we support the professional development of enterprise and entrepreneurship educators so that they have the knowledge and skills required to deliver an experience that adds value in a changing environment.
The workshop started with two provocations. One from Andy Penaluna who proposed that enterprise and entrepreneurship educators will know that they have done a good job because they are no longer needed. So there is value through redundancy. This is because they will have worked within their institution to facilitate the embedding of enterprise and entrepreneurship education across different disciplines and they will have encouraged others, such as students and businesses, to take ownership of education process. The other provocation from Kelly Smith reflected on the relationship between research and practice and the impact of the labels we use to describe what we do. Kelly proposed that as educators and researchers we are interested in finding things out and then talking about these things to others. In order to talk to others, we need skills to motivate, engage and reflect.
These provocations were used to stimulate discussion and debate and number of issues emerged. First, there was a discussion around understanding of different models of education and the role of the educator within these different models. For example, the life world of the small owner-manager is often messy, uncertain and ambiguous. However, the enterprise education process can promote this world as rather linear, structured and rational. Second, there was a discussion around the entrepreneurial experience of the educator and the ways in which this experience can be acquired. Third, the value of different communities (e.g. educators, small business owners, students and other stakeholders) to the development and delivery of enterprise and entrepreneurship education was discussed along with the role for the educator in bringing these different communities together and avoiding segregation and perceptions of ‘them and us’.
We are going to use the outcomes from the workshop to shape ongoing discussions related to different opportunities for the professional development of enterprise and entrepreneurship educator. So we would welcome you to get in touch leigh.sear@sfedi.co.uk and share your experiences and thoughts.
Leigh Sear
SFEDI and ISBE Trustee.