Entrepreneurship in the education system – the revolution of the twenty-first century

Citation

Yemini, M. (2014), "Entrepreneurship in the education system – the revolution of the twenty-first century", Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, Vol. 8 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEC-11-2013-0035

Entrepreneurship in the education system – the revolution of the twenty-first century

Article Type: Guest editorial From: Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, Volume 8, Issue 1

Special issue introduction

It is with much satisfaction to bring this special issue to share some of the many interesting research results in the field involving entrepreneurship and education at the global arena. In this issue, high-quality cases provide our readers with the opportunity to be exposed to the research and practice in this field in different parts of the world namely the USA, India, Malaysia, Singapore, EU region and Israel.

The globalization of economies and the development of new information and communication technologies have transformed almost every social domain, including that of education. Terms such as globalization, global politics, global history and global consciousness have gained significant attention from education scholars in recent years. Education systems, which are profoundly connected to the work world and to socialization of the future generation, are being transformed. Their role is being redefined by globalization processes and educational objectives are being reshaped in response to the need to compete in a global economy including introducing new sets of capabilities and knowledge that are needed in the twenty-first century workplace and society in general. Entrepreneurship is being considered to be a driving force of change and innovation, introducing opportunities to achieve efficient and effective performance in both public and private sectors. Teaching entrepreneurship and acting in entrepreneurial way in the scope of education system in those days appears to be an important issue in public policy and academic debates.

The definitive problem for government inspired enterprise and entrepreneurship education policies is the ability to translate concept into real practice that delivers individual, social, educational and economic uplift and this is often defined by specific country histories, cultures, economies and political commitment to project and program objectives. The initiatives vary in their aims and objectives but in general, the purpose is to encourage young people to have a more enterprising approach to life in order to help them cope with a rapidly changing world and to create wealth and thus enhance economic prospects. Brian Jones and Norma Iredale in their theoretical piece presents a wide context of understanding of the field of education concerned with entrepreneurship and enterprising and proposes a comprehensive framework for research and especially comparative studies in this field.

To continue the debate over entrepreneurship education in the twenty-first century, Kirk C. Heriot, Andres Jauregui, Tobias Huning, and Michael Harris discuss the maturity and legitimacy of entrepreneurship education as academic field by investigating the qualifications of the lectures in US academic institutions. Their results show that a significant percentage of the sample of college instructors did not have a doctorate in entrepreneurship, nor did they study entrepreneurship in their curriculum thereby potentially undermining perceptions of legitimacy of the field. According to their conclusions, the implication for the practice of entrepreneurship lies at the incubation stage of new ventures, specifically entrepreneurship centers and programs housed by academic institutions.

Connections between entrepreneurship and education have been recognized in the literature during the last decade, direct evidence concerning teachers’ innovative and entrepreneurial activities is extremely thin, however. Izhar Oplatka in his article on organizational citizenship behavior (OBC) of teachers shows how social entrepreneurship is being exercised in practice by exploring the entrepreneurial activities of self-starter teachers and analyzing the factors that facilitate or inhibit the appearance of these activities using the concept of organizational citizenship behavior that are neither part of the formal reward system nor a part of an employee’s mandatory job description. Social entrepreneurship aims at creating social value for the public good rather than personal wealth or private gain as in the case of commercial entrepreneurship. In this study, an inspirational analysis of entrepreneurial teachers in the field of road safety revealed internal and external conditions that might foster or inhibit such entrepreneurship in schools. Four major determinants, two of them external (e.g. the principal, the local education authority) and two internal (personal experiences, educational calling and emotional commitment) were identified in this case.

Teaching entrepreneurship in higher education institutions is also discussed in two concluding papers of this issue. Simeon Spiteri and Felix Maringe discuss some novel insights to entrepreneurship teaching across several EU countries and present students’ views on the current challenges in the field. On the other hand, novel insights for the teaching aims and processes are brought from the non-western parts of the world by Rohit H. Trivedi. In her analysis of the teaching staff in three countries in Asia, namely India, Malaysia and Singapore she presents research on the commitment of the faculty teaching entrepreneurship and the level of the institutional support provided to them.

This special issue tries to combine between the world of education and that of entrepreneurship within the framework of the globalized and dynamic twenty-first century reality. Education for long is being centered in fostering creative and entrepreneurial skills, while innovative management of educational institutions also starts gaining increasing volume of academic and business publications. I hope that the current publication will add significant contribution to this discourse through the education system.

Miri Yemini
Guest Editor