How do you teach entrepreneurship? Can an entrepreneurial mindset be nurtured – or is it a gift of nature? Are a classroom environment and a set of books sufficient for entrepreneurship pedagogy? How can we develop entrepreneurial leaders not only in business but in government and academia as well?
These are some of the questions addressed in a 200+ page Compendium of Pedagogies for Teaching Entrepreneurship published by the National Centre for Entrepreneurship in Education (NCEE), UK. Forty-four examples are identified and explained along with guides on how to use them for teaching entrepreneurship. In the authors’ words:
To assist the educator in deepening their understanding of their pedagogical approach, the guides are supplemented with an exploration of:
- Concepts of entrepreneurship and enterprise
- Underpinning educational traditions
- Entrepreneurial Learning and its intended outcomes
The list of pedagogies includes commonly used business school techniques such as brainstorming, elevator pitches, and business plans. However, it also includes unusual ones such as drama, psychometric tests, and locus of control.
One of the challenges identified for entrepreneurship pedagogy is the need to relate theory to practice. Entrepreneurial endeavors by practitioners must be studied in the context of robust and relevant theories. Conversely, management theories adapted to explain entrepreneurial behaviors and successes must be grounded in real-world practices and should be ‘teachable’ to students.