Entrepreneurship has traditionally been viewed as needing managerial competences and knowledge about business functions. More recent scientific entrepreneurship literature, however, highlights innovative, entrepreneurial competences in turbulent operational environments. The same viewpoints can be traced in EE; while traditional EE aims to develop students’ competences as managerial entrepreneurs 1, entrepreneurship in uncertain business environments is seen as requiring creative, even playful, entrepreneurs 2, 3.
Knowledge of facts is not in the core of entrepreneurship; rather entrepreneurship is a way of thinking and acting 4. Consequently, EE providing knowledge about entrepreneurship does not significantly promote an entrepreneurial mindset, and new approaches are required 5. According to Engeström 6, uncertain environments require simultaneous creation and learning of new knowledge. Daring experimentation and reliance on one’s own and partners’ competences are of vital importance because it is practically impossible to collect the information required for managerial decision-making 7.
Modern EE researchers view entrepreneurship as a valid concept in all human activities, not just in business 8, 9. Accordingly, entrepreneurship is defined broadly, including enterprising behaviors, even outside the business context. In basic education, teachers typically have a strong educational background and EE is seen as an inseparable part of other education. As a consequence, education dominates EE and the role of entrepreneurship is marginal 10.
Far too often, EE teachers follow outdated definitions of entrepreneurship. We can partly blame the ambiguous definition of entrepreneurship by the European Communities 11 and the Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland 12. The Finnish ministry defines entrepreneurship as “the individual’s ability to translate ideas into action. It encompasses creativity, innovativeness and risk-taking, as well as an ability to plan and direct action towards the achievement of goals” 13. Even though this definition acknowledges an individual’s creative and innovative role in “transforming ideas into action”, this definition assumes that the entrepreneurial process starts with an existing opportunity (according to discovery theory) and focuses on ”risk-taking attitude (trait theory), skills to plan and meet preset goals” (managing business functions). The EE teachers seem, in their everyday work, to have problems in combining their understanding of pedagogy and entrepreneurship. As a consequence, they either adopt the discovery theory or follow their own observations of how entrepreneurs run their businesses.
Teachers with strong pedagogical backgrounds rely on learning theories based on creativity and experiential and collaborative pedagogical elements. They aim to make curricula closer to reality by utilizing company visits, business games, creativity training, self-directed learning, problem-based learning, distance learning, behavioral simulations, and lifelong learning for those working in industry 14. Nevertheless, they base their assumptions of entrepreneurship on opposite assumptions than when considering education. In addition, teachers’ strong educational backgrounds result in educational choices overshadowing the entrepreneurial ones 15. Approximately half of teachers put less emphasis on entrepreneurship than on education 16.
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