You are here

Entrepreneurship: Inadequate Perceptions Of The Educator's Role

Andrew Cardow
Abstract: 

Without a cohesive secondary school entrepreneurship programme, New Zealand could be selling secondary school students short. Should enterprise education be limited to balance sheets and budgets? Why not teach creative thinking in enterprise?

Journal issue: 

ENTREPRENEURSHIP:
Inadequate Perceptions Of The Educator’s Role

Andrew Cardow • UNITEC Institute of Technology, Auckland

image

INTRODUCTION

The teaching of entrepreneurship within high schools has been linked with increased creativity, increased self-esteem, and increased academic development for those students who participate in such courses. In addition, encouragement of entrepreneurship has wide economic benefits for the country as a whole. New Zealand has long prided itself on the innovative talents of its citizens. We would expect therefore that the education sector, particularly in terms of teacher training, would promote self-employment and entrepreneurship as a viable life option. This is sadly not the case.

Before examining the results of a New Zealand study into how colleges of education are preparing their teachers of economics and accounting to view the concept and teaching of entrepreneurship, the following literature review highlights what is happening elsewhere regarding the need for, and the method of, teaching entrepreneurship and new-venture creation.

LITERATURE REVIEW

ENTREPRENEUR–A DEFINITION

Although a difficult subject to teach, the study of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs has enabled the establishment of an entrepreneurial paradigm. The leading concept this paradigm embraces is the ability to create, and successfully market, innovations. The paradigm also suggests that entrepreneurship is the process of creating a new venture of value and accepting the risks and rewards that go with this creative process. In addition, an entrepreneur is said to be one who exploits opportunities, and a person who does things that are not normally done in the ordinary course of business routine. Thus, for the purposes of this research an entrepreneur is a person who takes risks to create a new product or venture. In pursuing this activity the entrepreneur may use methods that are innovative when compared to current business practice.

INTERNATIONAL
COMPARISONS

In both Europe and the United States there a well-developed culture within the educational and industrial sectors that ensures enterprise education is practised, understood, and taught. The instruction of entrepreneurship is, however, not just limited to the tertiary sector, rather, it encompasses high schools, community colleges, and university institutions. There is an understanding implicit within the development of enterprise education that along with stimulating the desire to enter into business, there is also the benefit of exposing students to real problems. This exposure in turn helps the students’ problem-solving abilities, as well as providing a good basis for transition from learning to work. The educational theory behind such moves is that it provides real examples, and creates a national climate for enterprise development. There is also a belief that lack of such education contributes to a higher unemployment level, and a decrease in the creative talents of the country’s management.

image

The ability of the young person to leave school and be effectively assimilated into society, be it as an entrepreneur or as an employee, depends upon that person’s knowledge of how business and the society as a whole operates. In Europe and the United States this philosophy is closely followed. For example, in the United States there are many Small Business Initiative sites (SBI) which are a partnership between the staff of secondary schools, universities, and private smallbusiness operations. These SBI perform valuable roles for the staff concerned and have beneficial effects for the students. For the staff of the educational institutions, there is the certainty of becoming exposed to live situations which enable them to utilise their skills and knowledge base. For the students, there is the chance to become involved in assisting a real operation. For operators of small businesses, there is the ability to utilise the knowledge of the teaching staff.

In the United Kingdom, there is a similar scheme in operation, although it is limited to high schools and community colleges. Enterprise education is so well developed in the United Kingdom, and so widespread, that a study done in 1989 by the OECD found the level and scope of this activity so diverse and so differentiated that classification was a problem. However, common to all the courses concerning enterprise education was the emphasis on problem solving, creativity, and opportunity generation. The courses have had a beneficial flow-on effect for the participants in that they raised the self-esteem of the young people and allowed the students to see selfemployment as a viable life option.

BENEFITS OF ENTERPRISE EDUCATION

The major benefit of enterprise education appears to be the ability of the programme to encourage innovation and creativity. This is an important finding as such creativity is not limited to the students’ ability in businessrelated subjects, rather it makes its impact across the school curriculum. Most importantly, the impact of enterprise training has been shown in the development of problem solving and people skills. Aside from scholastic benefits, training in enterprise and entrepreneurship has a positive effect on the economic development of the country. Furthermore, entrepreneurship education is seen as non-partisan and non-political in that it appeals to all political and social groups through the promotion of initiative, creativity, and innovation.

THE NEW ZEALAND SITUATION

Based on the above literature review, the introduction of enterprise education and/or entrepreneurship as a secondary school subject would therefore appear to be in the best interests of New Zealand. The researchers in this field suggest a link between such programmes and the economic development of both the individual and the country. Other benefits such as increasing the creative ability of students and teaching them how to respond to opportunities are also inherent in any programme of entrepreneurship. Why, then, does New Zealand not have an integrated enterprise development programme in high schools? Currently there is the young enterprise scheme, which can hardly be considered a universal programme, and there is the nationwide sharemarket game. These two programmes, while they enjoy some support, are not universal throughout the country. An education system that ignores or does not highlight smallbusiness development at high school would appear to be one that is economically and educationally irresponsible.

It was the lack of such programmes, and the awareness that many students of high school economics and accounting could be asking the question: “Entrepreneurship—what’s that?”, that prompted the recent study described here. It was designed to ascertain the ability of economic and accounting teachers in understanding and transferring knowledge about entrepreneurship to their students.

The study involved discussions with a focus group of 12 Auckland College of Education pre-service teacher trainees and telephone interviews with the heads of economic teaching at four colleges of education.

THE FOCUS GROUP

The group chosen to represent the teachers were 12 prospective economic and accounting teachers, and their lecturers. It was considered important to discover how a beginning teacher saw the subject of entrepreneurship and how it fitted into the study of economics and/or accounting. Economic and accounting teachers were studied not because the researcher believes they are the “best” people to teach entrepreneurship, but because they are most likely to be the teachers responsible for any enterprise education.

Members of the focus group were first asked: “What do you understand by the term entrepreneurship”? Many answers to this question were similar to the definitions given in the literature. For example, one of the responses was that an entrepreneur was someone with “the ability to make profit while being innovative and taking a risk”. Another saw entrepreneurship as “stepping outside normal bounds, making things happen”. However, one of the respondents saw entrepreneurship as only appearing in “large businesses”. This comment was echoed by another who responded that entrepreneurs “start as sole traders and then become entrepreneurs,” and are “found in manufacturing”. Overall the student teachers’ impressions were that an entrepreneur took risks, created things, and were “innovative”.

Schools are not that innovative.

The next step was to find out how these students would actually impart their knowledge to secondary school students. When asked “How would you teach this subject?” the consequent discussions began to raise concerns about their capability to carry this task out. It must be emphasised that the students’ inability to teach entrepreneurship was as a result of the lack of methodology given in how to teach the subject.

When the group was asked how they would teach entrepreneurship and creativity, one of the students said they would use “examples of successful guys, look at their profile, how they do things”. Using models of this nature was a common approach—suggestions like “analyse the man” and “analyse the people” were also offered. There was a lack of information given on how this would inspire creativity and opportunity exploitation. It would appear that these students would teach entrepreneurship from the viewpoint of how others have succeeded rather than how their students can succeed—in general, a passive rather than an active approach.

This passive approach was pursued further and the group was asked, “What do you consider an entrepreneurial business, as opposed to a small business”? “There is no such thing as an entrepreneurial business— there are only entrepreneurs” was one reply. Another response which was more concerning was that “small businesses deal with technical things” and that a “small business cannot be entrepreneurial”. The question needs to be asked “Why can’t a small business be entrepreneurial”? It is generally accepted within the research that there is a clear difference between a small business and an entreprenurial business. The small business is content not to grow or innovate, whereas the entrepreneur desires growth, is inspired by creativity and pursues innovation. However this does not rule out the possibility that a small-business owner could be given the skills and training, that would enable them to become entrepreneurial.

The most disturbing comment regarding the teaching of entrepreneurship was that “entrepreneurship cannot be taught”. If our teachers believe that small business cannot be entrepreneurial, and that creativity is gained by looking at “successful guys”, how are the students going to develop creative thinking? If pre-service teachers believe that entrepreneurship cannot be taught, and furthermore, that, “entrepreneurs need an idea but they don’t need to be creative”, is representative of New Zealand secondary school economic teachers, it is not surprising that there is limited enterprise education in the secondary sector.

Finally, when asked if they intended teaching entrepreneurship, or saw a need for the subject most students answered “no” although two said they “would like to”. That two students thought they would like to teach entrepreneurship, suggests that there would be a problem for them in doing so. To investigate this assumption four secondary teacher training institutions were contacted for their comments regarding the teaching of entrepreneurship. After speaking to tutors within these institutions, it was clear why the students had felt that they would like to teach entrepreneurship but expressed some doubt. In general, it appeared that the teaching of entrepreneurship is not given any attention within the colleges of education.

COLLEGES OF EDUCATION

In order to investigate the validity of this assumption, the heads of economics at four colleges of education were canvased by telephone. The four colleges of education were located in Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, and Palmerston North, and were approached to test the assumptions that were suggested by the focus-group encounter. They were asked two open-ended questions: What training in entrepreneurship is given to teachers? At what level did the college of education see entrepreneurship as a subject being introduced, and why at that level in particular?

It soon became apparent that the second question was redundant. The head of the economics department at each college of education seemed rather puzzled when asked what type of training their students received in the methods of teaching entrepreneurship. “We are not innovative here” was probably the most damning comment received, along with “schools are not that innovative”. These two comments alone should be enough to raise questions over the future direction of enterprise training in the New Zealand secondary sector.

Although one head of department commented that the methodology for teaching entrepreneurship “is not in the syllabus”, others believed that entrepreneurship was covered within the tourism subject of the sixth form certificate. However, it must be emphasised that this does not mean the colleges of education instructed the tourism teachers on the methods of teaching entrepreneurship. The colleges of education were united in their belief that they were “unaware of any school in [the city] which does teach entrepreneurship”. Two of the heads of department thought that the question was irrelevant with one saying, “It’s up to the individual school” if they choose to teach entrepreneurship. It is quite clear that New Zealand teacher training establishments appear to place little or no emphasis on equipping their graduates with the skills that would enable them to teach entrepreneurship. There would also appear to be an understanding that economic and accounting teachers are “too busy” to give time to showing their students how to act in a creative and innovative manner. That is not to say that the teachers in front of the students do not present material in a creative fashion. There is a difference between teaching knowledge about a subject and development of the skills needed to perform in a creative manner.

CONCLUSIONS

The responses to these questions were concerning, because, while the students had some understanding of entrepreneurship, they had little understanding of how to teach the subject. In addition, it became apparent during the discussions with the heads of department at the four colleges of education that the subject of entrepreneurship is not seen as an important subject within the economic or accounting streams, and therefore the techniques required for teaching the subject are not passed onto the student teachers. Furthermore the colleges of education consulted thought it unlikely that the high schools would want to teach the subject. This was a feeling that was shared by the pre-service teachers interviewed. This attitude puts New Zealand behind our trading partners in terms of how, and at what level, students are given the option of entrepreneurship as a viable life option.

This research is qualitative in nature. It is designed to pose questions and raise topics for future study and debate. As such, the research is not intended to posit any definitive answers regarding the training of New Zealand secondary educators of economics or accounting.

The colleges of education saw their goal as “turning students into teachers”. It was implied that the skills of creativity and innovation in business are not what colleges are set up to do. It would appear, therefore, that in economics and accounting, these teachers are leaving the training centre and embarking on a career in business education that ignores a growing sector of the New Zealand industrial landscape. Are they therefore equipped with the methods needed to develop innovation, creativity, and initiative? If the responses from the focus group and the training establishments are representative the answer is concerning.

The above section posed the question, “What sort of training was given to teachers in order for them to teach entrepreneurship?” The answer to this question is—“none.” This situation places New Zealand behind some of its trading partners in terms of educational development. It has been shown that the existence of entrepreneurship programmes creates a climate for enterprise in the community. Moreover, such programmes have raised the self-esteem and creative talents of secondary school students across the school curriculum. Enterprise education and entrepreneurship also appear to have an influence on the students view of selfemployment as a viable life time option. In addition, the educational performance of a country is said to be related to the innovative performance of the country. If this is the case, the New Zealand education sector would appear to be embracing the culture of mediocrity. This report is not suggesting that New Zealanders are not innovative. However, the skills and innovation that some New Zealanders currently show were not acquired at school.

FURTHER RESEARCH

The results from the focus group interviews, the telephone discussions, and the literature review show that New Zealand teachers of accounting and economics need to examine more closely the notion of entrepreneurship within the secondary school sector. This survey was based on only one group of students attending Auckland College of Education, and only four colleges of education for secondary school teachers. Since this survey, at least four tertiary institutions in Auckland have signalled their intention to train secondary school teachers. It is hoped that they will have a different methodology than the four questioned.

Further research is needed to discover how many secondary schools are actually integrating entrepreneurship into their school curriculum. Enterprise and entrepreneurship suffer from being associated with right wing political philosophy. This could be a factor in influencing some school boards in not wishing to adopt the programmes, so too could the idea of cultural relevancy. These factors need to be examined, as most societies survive on trade.

Other factors that could be inhibiting the development of entrepreneurship within the secondary school syllabus could be the lack of qualified teaching staff. Although this survey concentrated on economics and accounting, it does not necessarily mean that is where the teaching of entrepreneurship naturally lies. The subject could lie equally well within the areas of geography, music, or art. However in most cases it appears within the tourism sector. Finally, research is required regarding how students perceive the subject of entrepreneurship. There appears to be a barrier between the technical/business subjects and the arts/science subjects. Perhaps one way to overcome this barrier is market the subject as one that deals with opportunities, creativity, innovation, and self-development.

image

NOTES

ANDREW CARDOW is a lecturer in the Centre for Applied Management, UNITEC Institute of Technology, Auckland. He has also written on innovations within the small business sector and is currently working on commercialisation of patents in New Zealand. E-mail: acardow@unitec.ac.nz

The link between teaching of entrepreneurship and increased creativity, self-esteem, and academic development is noted in:

van Clouse, G. (1990). A controlled experiment relating to entrepreneurial education to student start up decisions. Journal of Small Business Management, 28(2), 45–51.

Weaver, M. (1993). Two alternative approaches to creating opportunity for entrepreneurial activity. Journal of Creative Behaviour, 27(2), 89–102.

That encouragement of entrepreneurship has wide economic benefits is noted in:

Gibson, A. (1994). Freiean versus enterprise education. Convergence, 27(1), 46–55.

The definitions of entrepreneurship are taken from:

Hirsch, R. & Peters, M. (1995). Entrepreneurship. Chicago, Il: Irwin.

Holt, D. (1992). Entrepreneurship. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Vesper, K. (1990). New venture strategies. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

The importance of enterprise education in Europe and the United States is noted in:

Gibb, A. (1993). Enterprise culture and education. International Journal of Small Business, 11(3), 11–34.

That instruction of entrepreneurship in Europe and the United States is not limited to the tertiary sector is noted in:

Hatten, T. & Ruhland, S. (1995, March/April). Student attitude toward entrepreneurship. Journal of Education For Business, 224–227.

The benefits of exposing students to “real problems” via entrepreneurship are noted by:

Gibb (1993), see above.

Gibson (1994), see above.

Willis, D. (1992). Educational assessment and accountability: A New Zealand case study. Journal of Education Policy, 7(2).

Wringe, C. (1988). Education schooling and the world of work. In D. Corson (Ed.), Education for work. Palmerston North: Dunmore Press.

That effective assimilation into society depends on a knowledge of business is noted by:

Wringe (1998), see above.

Small Business Initiatives in the United States are described in:

Bragnoff, N. Bullen, M., & Johnston, J. (1994, July). Partnership with business. Management Accounting, 56–58.

Hatten & Ruhlands (1995), see above.

Enterprise schemes in the United Kingdom are described in:

Gibb (1993), see above.

Gibson (1994), see above.

The benefits of enterprise education are discussed in:

Gibson (1994), see above.

van Clouse (1990), see above.

Weaver (1993), see above.

The differences between a passive or an active approach to teaching entrepreneurship are noted in:

Hirsch & Peters (1995), see above.

That there is a clear difference between a small business and an entrepreneurial business is noted in:

Dollinger, M. (1995). Entrepreneurship. Chicago, Il: Irwin.

Vesper (1990), see above.

That the educational performance of a country is related to the innovative performance of the country is noted by:

Willis (1992), see above.

That enterprise and entrepreneurship suffer from being associated with right wing political philosophy is noted by:

Gibson (1994), see above.

The benefits of using a focus group and qualitative research is noted by:

Gummesson, E. (1991). Qualitative research methods in management research. Newbury Park CL: Sage Publications.

Details regarding small businesses are noted in:

Statistics New Zealand. (1996). Quarterly returns. Wellington: Author.