Attitudes and values of teachers and leaders towards entrepreneurship education

ABSTRACT

Effective implementation of entrepreneurship education requires more than government policy to enable teachers and leaders to implement the content and pedagogy required for successful and innovative programmes to occur in schools. This paper provides an up-to-date literature review of research into the characteristics of teachers and school leaders who have intentionally implemented entrepreneurship education. This review was conducted in order to gain insight into the attitudes and values of teachers, the role of leadership and the enablers and barriers to success. This systematic review of the literature found 61 studies relating to the approach teachers and leaders took when implementing entrepreneurship education and factors that enabled successful implementation. Six enablers, which support effective implementation of entrepreneurship education were identified: consensus between teachers on methods, support from leadership, an entrepreneurial school culture, prioritisation, professional development, and teacher networking. Implications of the review included the need for research into how to support leaders to seek professional development in entrepreneurship education and strategies to implement the approach. A comparison of the effectiveness of different pedagogical methods provides an opportunity to measure the relevance of the approach, which the authors argue begins to address social and employment-related issues arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

KEYWORDS:

• Entrepreneurship
• enterprise
• COVID-19
• education
• teaching

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. A systematic literature review of 45 studies spread across 9 countries. See Hardie, Highfield, and Lee (2020). Entrepreneurship education today for students’ unknown futures. Journal of Pedagogical Research, 4(3), 401–417. https://doi.org/10.33902/JPR.2020063022

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bethany Hardie

Bethany Hardie is a PhD student and emerging academic at the Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Auckland. Her research is focussed on effective entrepreneurship education in public schools. She is passionate about student engagement and continues to explore how schools enable learners to thrive.

Camilla Highfield

Dr Camilla Highfield is the Deputy Dean at the Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Auckland. Camilla’s teaching, research and professional interests are in the arts and creativity, teacher professional development, school change and culturally responsive teaching and leadership. She works on projects with a focus on equity and social justice.

Kerry Lee

Dr Kerry Lee is National Chair of Technology Education New Zealand (TENZ) and is a senior lecturer and discipline leader for STEM, at the University of Auckland. She has lead roles on many national and international bodies and has published widely in the fields of technology education, supporting indigenous technology education, digital technologies, linking with industry and employers, sustainability, enterprise and entrepreneurship education.