The Changing Face of Entrepreneurship Education

Is entrepreneurship a legitimate aca-demic discipline?Is entrepreneurship a legitimate field ofresearch?

I, for one, am not concerned with answeringthose questions. But if you are, for one datapoint of consideration, you’re reading thisspecial issue on the subject. The conversation isgoing on all around us—academic publicationsand entire journals focused on the subject arebecoming commonplace, popular news outletsand blogs abound with insights, opinions, andresearch on the topic. For another data point,look around almost any college campus andyou’ll find entrepreneurship making gloriouswaves. The number of institutions offeringentrepreneurship-related courses is consis-tently rising. The variety of courses is growingexponentially. The list of impactful extracur-ricular activities exposing students to someaspect of entrepreneurship is astounding andinspirational. For a third data point, look at thetremendous amount of research being done byindividuals around the world and by collectivesproducing large, far-reaching projects such asthe Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics,Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, and Entre-preneurship Education Project. It is irrelevantwhat we think and how long we want to argueover the answer to those two questions—inertiatells us it is a discipline and it is growing withastounding intensity.

Can entrepreneurship be taught?Should we teach business plans or busi-ness models?

Again, I, for one, am not concerned withanswering those questions. The number ofentrepreneurship courses, modules, work-shops, boot camps, training sessions, and thelike has been growing exponentially aroundthe world. Academics flock to the discipline,and practitioners are more than eager to addtheir two cents to the conversation throughappointments as entrepreneurs-in-residence,

as guest speakers, as adjunct professors/instructors, and as second career professors.Some educators focus on developing a skill setin their students. Some focus on developing amindset in their students. Some take a moreholistic competency approach, or a tool boxapproach, or some similar verbiage. Whateverthe approach, whatever the content, the fact isthat entrepreneurship exists in the pantheon ofeducation around the world. It’s here to stay(thankfully). We know how critical entrepre-neurial behavior is to the fabric of society. Weknow that one way to positively influence thisbehavior is through education. I applaud eachand every one of you for the courage to tacklethis challenge of educating future generationsof rabble-rousers, troublemakers, mutants . . .entrepreneurs. This special issue highlights avery few of us who are engaging in the dia-logue and practice surrounding the relationshipbetween teaching and researching entrepre-neurship. I thank Dr. George Solomon forchampioning this special issue, and encourageyou to digest the information here and use it toenhance your study and/or practice of entre-preneurship education.

It Takes a Community“Entrepreneurship education” seems to have

an interesting conflict just in those two words.For generations, the idea of entrepreneurshipconjured up notions of isolated men (and rarelywomen) losing sleep and their hair over theirobsession with some radical transformation of aprocess or product they identified as broken orinefficient. Education, on the other hand, con-jures up notions of a collective, of groups ofstudents being led by one instructor—the sageon the stage in the traditional model. Entrepre-neurship education presents a unique opportu-nity; it is a domain which is uniquely poised toengage students in experiential learning. Thearticles in this special issue highlight how thisis being done, and how well this is being done.But we can always improve, and we should.We can work to redefine the mechanism that

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connects the student and the teacher; weshould focus more heavily on autonomy andmotivation so students will own the process offinding and digesting content. We should teachcompetencies, and make the learning adaptiveso each student experiences a powerful, per-sonal learning environment. What we need todo is take an entrepreneurial approach to edu-cation. Our strong focus on skill buildingshould shift to experience building. Our focuson what happens inside the classroom shouldshift to a focus on the educational possibilitythat lies outside the classroom.

We as a community of educators are failingour students because we are not thinking andacting entrepreneurially as we ask them to do.Within these pages, we present ways to do that,and some results of attempts at doing that.

Doan Winkel,Assistant Professor of EntrepreneurshipIllinois State University, Campus Box 5580Normal, IL 61761E-mail: dwinkel@ilstu.edu

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