Entrepreneurialism Recontextualised in Rhetorical Harmonisation

Author(s):

Anita Norlund(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2014

Network:

23. Policy Studies and Politics of Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

23 SES 05 D, European Policies on the School Curriculum (Part 1)

Paper Session: to be continued in 23 SES 06 D

Time:

2014-09-03

11:00-12:30

Room:

B336 Sala de Aulas

Chair:

Robert Lingard

Contribution

Although criticized from a scientific perspective, the belief in entrepreneurial education as a transformation practice seems to be growing strong rapidly. Among a variety of critical studies, we find Nylund and Rosvall (2011) who argue that the wordings characteristic of entrepreneurial learning are no more than empty words, difficult to relate to specific knowledge (academic or content area matters), and supposedly difficult to operationalize in specific teaching situations. Among critical studies we also find Holmgren and From (2005) who stress that the benefits of entrepreneurial education lack empirical foundation.

My presentation aims at examining the interplay between different educational actors who relocate the idea of entrepreneurial education into the classroom. My study is placed within the research field of sociologies of education, with a particular emphasis on the concept of recontextualisation. This concept is collected from Basil Bernstein's theoretical framework (Bernstein 1990, 2000) and relies on a process in which various actors make their contributions of beliefs and activities. In turn, the actors belong to different recontextualisation fields, such as ORF (the Official Recontextualisation Field), PRF (the Pedagogic Recontextualising Field (PRF) and LRF (the Local Recontextualising Field).

Method

The rapidly growing belief in entrepreneurial education seems to be a fact not only generally in an American and European context, but also in relation to a Swedish context, which is the specific location for my analysis. My data consists of a set of citations representing the variety of recontextualising fields mentioned above. In ORF (the Official Recontextualising Field) we find national authorities, such as The Swedish National Agency for Education, which define and direct curricular intentions and evaluate how these are interpreted. PRF (The Pedagogic Recontextualising Field) includes teacher training colleges and textbook producers. Both these and other fields add perspectives and resources to LRF (The Local Recontextualising Field) i.e. the field where pupils meet each other and their teachers, and participate in educational arrangements. This means that I have collected contributions from policy documents, textbook producers, teacher trade union leaders, commercial companies. Following this, my presentation is built on a critical analysis of the interplay between different actors representing different fields.

Expected Outcomes

For instance, it will be shown that a new curricular reform (Lgr 11), launched and initiated by the Swedish Ministry of Education, relies on a variety of pedagogic beliefs, however particularly on the idea of entrepreneurial learning. The website from The Swedish National Agency for Education announces that the agency has been commissioned by the government to stimulate entrepreneurship at school. The results also show that a phenomenon (the idea of a self-governing pupil) previously met with a sceptical attitude by practising teachers has now through a seductive rhetoric taken a new firm grip on teachers, due to its emphasis on the importance of pupils’ creativity, courage, and power of initiative. Commonly, actors interact and influence each other in a common arena. Arena is in fact the concept Bernstein (2000) uses to illustrate that the recontextualisation process involves a struggle between actors and fields. While Tan (2010) illustrates and identifies how tensions, rejections, resistance, conflicts, and controversies may characterise reform work, entrepreneurial education seems to be promoted in a harmonic rhetoric. It is particularly interesting, I argue, to draw conclusions in relations to conditions for pupils of different social backgrounds.

References

Bernstein, B. (1990) Class, codes and control. Vol. 4, The structuring of pedagogic discourse. London: Routledge. Bernstein, B. (2000) Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity: theory, research, critique. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Holmgren, C. & From J. (2005). Taylorism of the Mind: entrepreneurship education from a perspective of educational research. European Education Research Journal, 4(4), 382-390. Nylund, M. & Rosvall, P-Å. (2011) Gymnasiereformens konsekvenser för den sociala fördelningen av kunskaper i de yrkesorienterade utbildningarna. Pedagogisk forskning i Sverige, 2011, 1 (2), 81-99. Tan, C. (2010) Contrasting reform: Bernstein’s pedagogic device and madrasah education in Singapore. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 42(2), 165–182.

Author Information

Anita Norlund (presenting / submitting)

University of Borås

Department of Education and Behavioural Sciences

Borås

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