Behind the scenes: spotlight on the entrepreneurship educator

Abstract

Purpose

Explores the role of the entrepreneurship educator and their place in the entrepreneurship education landscape.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper uses an adapted version of Jones and Matlay's (2011) conceptual framework that describes the context of entrepreneurship education to explore the entrepreneurship educator's role. In-depth interviews were conducted with eleven entrepreneurship educators from five universities/university colleges in Denmark.

Findings

Illustrates the situated nature of entrepreneurship education. The entrepreneurship educator is embedded in a system of dialogic relationships with a range of stakeholders. This paper provides insights into how the entrepreneurship educator navigates these relationships and the influence these relationships have in determining the scope and nature of the entrepreneurship educator's role.

Research limitations/implications

Provides a framework and findings upon which further studies can build in an area that has hitherto received limited attention. Findings could be compared with those in other geographical contexts, for example. The dialogic relationships themselves could be explored either holistically or individually with other stakeholders (e.g. students, institutions, communities).

Originality/value

Research on the role of the entrepreneurship educator is extremely limited in an area that has otherwise seen a proliferation of research. The adaptation and application of Jones and Matlay's (2011) framework provides a novel way of understanding how this role is shaped. Where most studies focus either on course content or the students, this study proposes another way to gain insight into the complex world of delivering entrepreneurship education.

Citation

Wraae, B. and Walmsley, A. (2020), "Behind the scenes: spotlight on the entrepreneurship educator", Education + Training, Vol. 62 No. 3, pp. 255-270. https://doi.org/10.1108/ET-01-2019-0009