Enterprising Education: A Grounded Study of Secondary Schools in India

Abstract

The entrepreneur has always been at the centre of entrepreneurship education. The question of how an individual thinks entrepreneurially is debatable. The world of entrepreneurs has clearly shown that there isn’t one type of entrepreneur. This implies that a reliance on teaching entrepreneurship as a process with predictable outcomes would not be appropriate. Instead, an introduction of a new approach to entrepreneurship as a method would imply imparting individuals with a body of skills by virtue of which they learn how to think entrepreneurially. This approach entails experimenting with a pedagogical portfolio which leads to the development of an entrepreneurial mindset. The common belief is that high levels of entrepreneurship in a society can be achieved by imparting entrepreneurship education. However, most of the subjects in entrepreneurial programs focus on the activities a potential entrepreneur should have the ability to perform functionally as opposed to behaviorally. Hence the question of whether an entrepreneurial behavior can be developed with an appropriate choice of subjects or of the teaching methods remains. Scholars across the globe converge at the idea of entrepreneurship education being restricted to new venture creation. However, a small percentage of scholars believes that entrepreneurship education is a broader phrase which encompasses both entrepreneurship education, the outcome of which is new venture creation and enterprise education, the outcome of which is the development of an enterprising mindset. The enterprise paradigm of entrepreneurship concentrates on the personal skills and opportunities that originate from within the individual, rather than focusing on the business level.