Different Languages, Shared Goals? Starting a conversation between Enterprise Education and Sustainability Education

Author(s):

Lynne Wyness(presenting / submitting)Paul Jones

Conference:

ECER 2015

Network:

22. Research in Higher Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

22 SES 03 B, Enterpreneurship in Teaching

Paper Session

Time:

2015-09-08

17:15-18:45

Room:

391. [Main]

Chair:

Hugh Busher

Contribution

This research project aims to identify and examine the synergies between Enterprise Education (EE) and Sustainability Education (ESD) in Higher Education and to evaluate the potential for a merged pedagogical approach, critically informed by best practice in both fields. This intentional conflation aims to strengthen students’ acquisition of the 21st century skills, knowledge, and attitudes (including values and dispositions) that will be essential for the creation of a more sustainable and socially just future.

Enterprise and sustainability, and the two ‘educations’ that promote them (Enterprise Education EE and Education for Sustainable Development ESD), have shared similar trajectories in Higher Education over recent years, edging their way in from the margins to more validated positions within mainstream agendas. The two fields share many similar characteristics: both provoke debates over their ‘definitions’ and both have suffered from a bolt-on approach where regular learning activities have been ‘retrofit’ with an element of sustainability or enterprise. Both are ‘future-facing’ and share similar pedagogical approaches to this end, such as experiential and active learning, participatory approaches, and analytical problem-solving. Yet, the two fields have remained largely bound to their respective camps from where, until very recently, they have spied the other with a degree of mutual suspicion.

This research project seeks to identify what, and where, is the common ground between EE and ESD. What potential synergies and opportunities exist in pedagogical approaches, learning outcomes, and assessment practices? How different are the ‘languages’ of sustainability and enterprise, and where are the points of departure, particularly in terms of ethics and values?

The project explores examples of current best practice in ESD and EE in a national and international context and asks what pedagogies ‘work’ best in these contexts in the cultivation of enterprising and sustainability-literate graduates.

Finally, understanding practitioners from the two fields from an identity perspective, what perceptions, attitudes, and/or preconceptions do practitioners of EE and ESD hold towards ‘sustainability’ and ‘entrepreneurship’ respectively?

Method

The project employs a range of qualitative research methods. Following a mapping exercise of the literatures from both fields, two surveys were constructed and sent out to educators from a cross-section of national and leading international Higher Education Institutes teaching on degree programmes with distinct sustainability and enterprise components, in order to identify current trends, pedagogical approaches, examples of best practice, and attitudes towards the fields of ESD and EE. The survey data was analysed and informed the design of the interview schedule and the recruitment of twelve thought leaders from both Enterprise Education and Sustainability Education in a national and international context.

Expected Outcomes

Although the research is still in progress at the time of writing, several themes have emerged. Firstly, there are scholars in both fields of EE and ESD that call for the overhaul of the education system, suggesting that the current educational paradigm hinders the creative growth of learners (Sterling, 2001; Lautenschlägler & Haase, 2011). Although creativity was cited as the top skill required by the 21st century entrepreneurial graduate by respondents to the EE survey, it is largely absent from the ESD literature (a notable exception being Sandri, 2013). There is a clear need within sustainability-related programmes for developing pedagogy and assessment practices that encourage students’ creative responses to uncertainty. Secondly, both EE and ESD have ‘bodies’ of knowledge that are easily teachable, such as business plan creation and environmental processes. What are considered less readily teachable are the more affective qualities deemed necessary to accompany students on their journey to a desirable future. The most effective learning experiences in EE and ESD are those which bring about transformation in their students’ identities and the experiential pedagogies that can scaffold the student’s shift to a more ‘sustainable’ or ‘entrepreneurial’ way of being or ‘identity’ are becoming essential subjects for practice and research. Speaking with both sustainability and entrepreneurship educators, it is clear that the distinct ‘languages’ of both fields are often in tension and so how the ‘languages’ (and speakers) of each field might be brought into meaningful and productive dialogue is an important question. What, and how, might sustainability educators learn from those well-versed in entrepreneurship, and vice versa? This paper presents an overview of the findings from this research and suggests how this nascent conversation might progress.

References

Harmeling, S. (2011) ‘Re-storying an entrepreneurial identity: education, experience and self-narrative’, Education & Training, 53:8/9, pp. 741-749 Lautenschlägler, A. & Haase, H. (2011) ‘The myth of Entrepreneurship Education: Seven arguments against teaching business creation at university’, Journal of Entrepreneurship Education, 14, pp. 147-16 Sandri, O. (2013) ‘Exploring the role and value of creativity in education for sustainability’, Environmental Education Research, 19:6, pp. 765-778 Sterling, S. (2001) Sustainable Education: Revisioning Learning and Change, Schumacher Briefings, Green Books: Totnes

Author Information

Lynne Wyness (presenting / submitting)

Plymouth University

PedRIO

Plymouth

Paul Jones

Plymouth University, United Kingdom

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