Creating an entrepreneurial learning environment for entrepreneurship education in HE: The educator’s perspective

Abstract

This paper focuses on entrepreneurship educators as creators of an entrepreneurial learning environment in entrepreneurship education. Entrepreneurship education research has concentrated mainly on the subjects of education (i.e. the students) or on the content of learning, leaving individuals with a critical role in entrepreneurship education – the educators – without sufficient attention. In response, the research question for this study is: how do entrepreneurship educators create entrepreneurial learning environments in entrepreneurship education within higher education? The qualitative study draws on the principles of Vosniadou et al. concerning active learning environments by concentrating on interviews with entrepreneurship educators and documentary data. An entrepreneurial learning environment can be defined as a self-regulatory, co-created learning setting in which entrepreneurship students from different backgrounds learn in teams, as the findings suggest that educators emphasise adjustable co-creation within a ‘given’ format involving individuals with complementary skills working in teams. The study contributes to fulfilment of the identified need to understand the educator’s perspective, and to share the know-how and educational experiences of entrepreneurship educators. Practitioners can use the findings as a concrete tool for the creation of an entrepreneurial learning environment. They can learn from, adopt and develop the practices discussed when designing learning environments for their entrepreneurship students.