Guiding the student entrepreneur – Considering the emergent adult within the pedagogy–andragogy continuum in entrepreneurship education

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to build on current discussions about the need for and role of guidance in learning and teaching, as well as to theoretically develop its specifics to further advance our scholarly understanding of how to structure and enhance entrepreneurship education.Design/methodology/approachThe paper takes a synthesizing conceptual approach, built on developmental psychology, instructional science, expertise research as well as the pedagogy–andragogy discussion and the role of guidance in contemporary entrepreneurship education research. In addition, a new term, odigogy, is developed.FindingsOdigogy, from the Greek word odigós (to guide), addresses how to navigate student entrepreneurs in higher education. The term seeks to correspond both to the specifics of entrepreneurship as a subject and the characteristics of students in the classroom who are in a transitional phase between adolescence and adulthood.Practical implicationsThe paper contributes to current entrepreneurship education discussions by offering a more balanced terminology positioned between how to teach (pedagogy) and how adults learn (andragogy). The paper provides insights for teachers when developing teaching methods and learning activities in higher education.Originality/valueBy introducing the term odigogy the paper seeks to contribute an enhanced understanding of the entrepreneurial learning process in higher education, which does not match pedagogical assumptions on how to teach children or adolescents, nor andragogical assumptions on how adults learn, or how to engage students in self-directed learning as presented in heutagogy.