Entrepreneurship education: revisiting our role and its purpose

Abstract

Purpose

This paper seeks to focus on two questions. First, what value is created by entrepreneurship education? Second, how could any such value be created? The aim therefore is to go beyond any assumed notion that entrepreneurship education is beneficial to students in higher education, to question its underlying value.

Design/methodology/approach

A critical realist approach is used to discuss the ontological nature of entrepreneurship education. Specifically, the process through which enterprise knowledge is developed and used by students in higher education. This research is based on a single‐site case study at UTAS with the data collected by the author and complemented by other recent work that sought to empirically consider the notion of student value from entrepreneurship education within the same (UTAS) context.

Findings

The paper argues that students in higher education understand quite well the limitations of the knowledge they develop about entrepreneurship. That they (the educators) need to better understand the students' journeys so that they can better develop learning environments within which the students' personal development can be advanced.

Practical implications

The degree to which educators understand their limitations and the limitations of their students as potential entrepreneurs is critical to maximizing the likely value of entrepreneurship education in higher education.

Originality/value

The paper provides a unique way of understanding the process of learning to be entrepreneurial in higher education. As such it offers an alternative way to understand how educators can redefine their importance in the provision of entrepreneurship education. It also highlights the likely limitations of student advancement in the domain of entrepreneurship education in higher education.

Citation

Jones, C. (2010), "Entrepreneurship education: revisiting our role and its purpose", Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, Vol. 17 No. 4, pp. 500-513. https://doi.org/10.1108/14626001011088697