In this research, we develop, document, and analyze a narrative approach for students’ identity integration in the context of social & sustainable entrepreneurship course. Based on the analysis of narrative logs and interviews, we explore to what extent the proposed approach is conducive for students’ identity integration and how negative (and positive) emotions shape the process. Doing so, we address a gap in the social entrepreneurship education (SEE) literature and, more broadly, educational research. While identity integration is a key challenge in education (Akrivou and Bradbury-Huang 2015) and a focus of SEE in particular (Zhu, Rooney et al. 2016), few researches directly address identity integration, its drivers and possible obstacles (Jensen 2014).
Social entrepreneurship education (SEE) is not just about developing bridging skills and dealing with competing logics. It is also about questioning students’ personal intentions and moral value in relationship with their project and helping students in integrating those as part of their social entrepreneur’s identity. However, identity integration is far from easy as competing logics might trigger identity threats, conflicts and shifts. As an example, Pache and Chowdhury (2012) encourage students to adopt the norms and values that best fit with their personal views while acknowledging that bridging skills are likely to trigger identity conflicts. They suggest that students might face peer pressure, the initial expectations of their family, societal expectations and even their own doubts when managing the various norms and values that coexist in business schools. According to Plaskoff (2012), such negative feelings can be associated with identity threats, which students sometimes tackle by shifting from the proposed SE identity to a ‘decidedly commercial identity’ (Zhu et al. 2016, p. 612).
Addressing this challenge, Zhu et al. (2016) suggest methods – such as dialogues and narratives – that would sustain students’ identity integration by helping them reflect, alone or with others, about what one has learned and experienced. It echoes Akrivou and Bradbury-Huang (2015)’s call for conversational learning (CEL) practices in education for identity integration. Like Petriglieri and Petriglieri (2010), Akrivou and Bradbury-Huang (2015) suggest that students’ identity is at the heart of their learning process and that educators should facilitate conversations (Baker, Jensen, & Kolb, 2002) for students to discuss and reflect upon the transformational aspects of learning.
In spite of its promises, CEL is only emerging in SE education (see for instance Hockerts 2018). In this research, we design a CEL-based narrative teaching device (individual and collective narrative logs, narrative murals, narrative feedbacks) for students in a social entrepreneurship course. Through the teaching devices (logs) as well as interviews, we documented the identity integration process at stake in the course. Then, we analyzed the collected data in order to better understand the process, its emotional drivers and obstacles.