Critical Implications of Entrepreneurship Key Competence for Teacher Education

Author(s):

Bianca Thoilliez(presenting / submitting)Jesús Manso

Conference:

ECER 2014

Network:

10. Teacher Education Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

10 SES 05 A, Teacher Educators: Entrepreneurship and Identity

Paper Session

Time:

2014-09-03

11:00-12:30

Room:

B217 Sala de Aulas

Chair:

Aileen Kennedy

Contribution

According to the European Key Competence Framework, the entrepreneurship key competence refers to “an individual’s ability to turn ideas into action”. This ability contains “creativity, innovation and risk taking, as well as the ability to plan and manage projects in order to achieve objectives”. The teaching of this competence is thought to be developed through “mindsets, generic attributes and skills that are the foundations of entrepreneurship” as well as complementary and more specific instruction on business education. The inclusion of entrepreneurship as a key competence into national curriculum standards all over the European Union, is making teacher education to face hitherto unknown pressures. Furthermore, because teachers are being pointed as a critical success factor in the entrepreneurship development (European Commission, 2011) entrepreneurship education for teachers is gaining considerable importance.

There are two main reasons why the European Reference Framework has been quick to adopt entrepreneurship as a competence. On one hand, Europe is facing several changes and challenges which may only be overcome if the region can count on a well educated population with the ability to innovate and initiate new projects and ideas. On the other hand, society and government repeatedly insist that we need a more dynamic economy aimed at innovation and job creation. This is meant to be a requirement which apparently would only be satisfied if Europe has a greater number of young people who are determined to undertake new projects and equipped with entrepreneurial skills. As part of its social dimension, education may have to address these new demands, and education systems are now expected to play a fundamental role in the building of an entrepreneurial culture in the region. The pressure this puts on school systems becomes even clearer when noticeable new education laws and political initiatives are being passed, both at the national and European levels, which stress the need of developing entrepreneurship education. (OECD, 2001 and 2005; Recommendation 2006/962/CE of the European Parliament and Council; LOE, 2006; Conclusiones del Consejo 2012/C 393/02; LOMCE, 2013). The education of future teachers is not alien to this new reality, and the need for training teachers in this new competence is emerging as a new feature of expected teachers’ professional skills (European Commission, 2013). Furthermore, research literature on entrepreneurship competence has demonstrated how important school settings are for developing a more entrepreneurial spirit in our societies (Seikkula-Leino, Ruskovaara, Ikävalko, Mattila, Rytkölä, 2012; Eurydice, 2012; Bernal Guerrero, 2014; Jiménez Palmero, Palmero, Cámara and Jiménez Eguizábal, 2012). However, there is a decided lack of more theoretical studies focusing on the meaning and the pedagogical implications of this new teachers’ task.

This paper aims to analyse what the implications are of developing entrepreneurship competence within teacher education programs. The research questions are as follows: What do we mean by “entrepreneurship” in teacher education? How does this affect our idea of what makes a “good teacher”? What are the main points of the political agenda driving this growth of interest on entrepreneurship education?

Method

This is a conceptual paper. We begin by analysing the main European Union policies on entrepreneurship education (with special attention to Europe 2020 strategy), as well as the various ways it has been incorporated into the Spanish curriculum. We have do this by defining a set of comparative criteria: a) political strategies to promote entrepreneurship key competence; b) strategic approach to supporting the development of entrepreneurship competence; c) conceptualization and curriculum organization of entrepreneurship competence; d) forms of assessing entrepreneurship key competence and educative implications. We go on to highlight some recent research results on the teachers’ perspectives on entrepreneurship education, the teachers’ reflections about entrepreneurial education, and the teachers’ direct experience in entrepreneurship. We conclude with a consideration of the possibilities and limitations of what entrepreneurship may actually imply for teacher education. And, more importantly, we speculate on the extent to which the focus on entrepreneurship is contributing to the development of “better teachers” within our education systems.

Expected Outcomes

Present-day European policies foster entrepreneurship as a viable solution to overcoming the high unemployed rates, especially among the youth. Furthermore, they look to entrepreneurship to help to drive innovation and competition in our challenged economies. In this context we are witnessing a growing interest in entrepreneurship education. Consequently, teachers are now expected to develop this “new” competence in their students. This paper is meant to provide a deeper understanding of the current focus of teacher education on entrepreneurship key competence. It will offer an analysis of European and Spanish policies on entrepreneurship education, as well as a careful review of some recent literature about teacher education for entrepreneurship, so that policymakers, teachers and administrators, teacher trainers and education students, all become more aware of the strengths and weaknesses of these policies. The paper will do its utmost to fill the lack in conceptual analysis of entrepreneurship in teacher education, and its impact on what it is expected of a “good teacher”.

References

Backström-Widjeskog, B., (2010). Teachers’ perspective on “Entrepreneurship Education”. EU Thematic Forum on School-Business Cooperation 24-25.3.2010, Brussels. Bernal Guerrero, A. (2014). Competencia emprendedora e identidad personal. Una investigación exploratoria con estudiantes de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria. Revista de Educación, 363, 384-411. Conclusiones del Consejo 2012/C 393/02, de 26 de noviembre de 2012, sobre la educación y la formación en Europa 2020 — La contribución de la educación y la formación a la recuperación económica, al crecimiento y al empleo. Diario Oficial C 393 de 19.12.2012. European Commission (2013). Entrepreneurship Education: A Guide for Educators. Bruxelles: Entrepreneurship and Social Economy Unit. European Commission, (2011). Entrepreneurship Education: Enabling Teachers as a Critical Success Factor. “A report on Teacher Education and Training to prepare teachers for the challenge of entrepreneurship education.” Final Report November 2011, Bruxelles 2011, European Union, 2011. European Commission (2006a). The Oslo Agenda for Entrepreneurship Education in Europe. . European Commission (2006b). Entrepreneurship Education in Europe: Fostering Entrepreneurship Mindsets through Education and Learning. Final Proceedings. Eurydice (2012). Entrepreneurship Education at School in Europe. National Strategies, Curricula and Learning Outcomes. Brussels: Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) Jiménez Palmero, A., Palmero Cámara, C. y Jiménez Eguizábal, A. (2012). El impacto de la educación secundaria y superior en la creación de empresas en la Unión Europea. Revista Española de Pedagogía, 70(252), 201-220. Ley Orgánica 8/2013, de 9 de diciembre, para la mejora de la calidad educativa. Boletín Oficial del Estado, núm. 295, de 10 de diciembre de 2013, pp. 97858 a 97921. Ley Orgánica 2/2006, de 3 de mayo, de Educación. Boletín Oficial del Estado, núm. 106, de 4 de mayo de 2006, pp. 17158 a 17207. OECD (2001). Definition and Selection of Competencies: Theoretical and Conceptual Foundations (DeSeCo). Background Paper. . OECD (2005). The Definition and Selection of Key Competencies. Executive Summary. . Recomendación 2006/962/CE del Parlamento Europeo y del Consejo, de 18 de diciembre de 2006, sobre las competencias clave para el aprendizaje permanente. Diario Oficial L 394 de 30.12.2006. Roncevic, S. y Segvic, S. (2011). Entrepreneurial Learning. A Key Competence Approach. ISCED Level 5/6. Zagreb: European Union & South East European Institute for Entrepreneurial Learning. Seikkula-Leino, J., Ruskovaara, E., Hannula, H., Saarivirta, T., (2012). Facing the Changing Demands of Europe: integrating entrepreneurship education in Finnish teacher training curricula, European Educational Research Journal, 11(3), 382-399.

Author Information

Bianca Thoilliez (presenting / submitting)

Universidad Europea de Madrid

Education

Madrid

Jesús Manso

UNIVERSIDAD NEBRIJA

MADRID

Search the ECER Programme

Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
Search for authors and in the respective field.
For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.