Entrepreneurial education: reflexive approaches to entrepreneurial learning in/through practice

Objectives - Even though entrepreneurial education is quite a new phenomenon in higher education, as a
field of inquiry it is one of the most rapidly growing areas of research. However there is a wide spread
consensus that traditional pedagogical methods of learning alone are insufficient to adequately develop
entrepreneurs to deal with the complexities of running and creating innovating business opportunities. The
paper seeks to contribute to a growing need to cultivate innovative ways of thinking, diverse skills and new
modes of behaviour to fully enhance and develop entrepreneurial approaches to education. The paper sets
out to address this problem by examining the role reflexivity can play in entrepreneurial education, as a
method of critiquing what it means to practice as an entrepreneur.
Prior Work – The paper argues that traditional approaches to entrepreneurial education tend to ignore, the
ambiguities and uncertainties which surround the entrepreneurial process. The historical pre-occupation
with an individualistic approach to entrepreneurial learning has continued to marginalise and de-value the
broader social context in which the entrepreneur functions, (Goss, 2005). Current writing on
entrepreneurial learning has shifted attention towards “learning for” as opposed to “learning about”
entrepreneurship.
Approach – The paper adopts a social constructionist perspective which draws recognition to the
importance of inter-subjective knowledge exchange as a means of developing entrepreneurial learning.
While there are numerous approaches to a social constructionist paradigm, the critical features of the
perspective provide the manner by which “we” come to experience the social world. The approach
suggests the development of a pedagogical approach which explores the social processes that constitute
entrepreneurial undertakings and thus shift the focus away from the traditional positivist approaches to
entrepreneurial learning.
Implications – The paper invites the reader to consider a more reflexive practice-oriented educational
agenda which involves challenging the “self-conceptions” of what does it mean to be an “entrepreneur”,
inviting openness to alternative meanings. This reflexive position represents a movement away from the
pre-conceptualisations of rationality, to a method that embraces introspection of critical reflection as a
means of creating learning practices that enable and facilitate the exploration of alternative perspectives.
Value –The paper presents a conceptual argument on the most appropriate and naturalistic way to educate
entrepreneurs, by viewing learning as a practice, supported and enabled through reflexive critique of the
entrepreneurs practices. There is a wide spread consensus that traditional pedagogical “instructional
methods” alone are insufficient to adequately develop entrepreneurs to deal with the complexities of
running and creating business opportunities. As a consequence there is a growing need to cultivate
innovative ways of thinking and new