Entreprenörskap i skolan : en studie av lärarroll och entreprenöriella förmågor på gymnasiekurser med konceptet Ung Företagsamhet

Abstract

During the recent years the interest in entrepreneurial education has increased both in terms of research being made in the subject, but also in the extent of entrepreneurial courses in Swedish secondary schools, where as the concept Junior Achievement (JA) is particularly being used. A common goal of the entrepreneurial education is apart from teaching the students how to start and run a business, to develop the students’ entrepreneurial skills and competences. The main purpose of the essay is to describe and illustrate the role of the teacher in the entrepreneurial pedagogy being used in courses with the JA concept and to investigate which entrepreneurial skills are being developed by the students participating in these courses. There is also the purpose of investigate what the characteristics are of this entrepreneurial pedagogy being used in the courses using the JA concept. The main theoretical foundation underpinning this study is the pedagogical philosophy formulated by John Dewey and the theory of situational leadership. My study took place in a secondary school in the area ofStockholm, where the JA concept was used in economical and project work courses. Two teachers teaching on these courses were interviewed and a questionnaire survey was conducted to obtain data from the teachers’ students. The main findings from this study are that the entrepreneurial pedagogy being used in the courses with the JA concept show high similarities with the philosophy of John Dewey. The role of the teacher is to be a tutor, guiding the students through the work process, by being more directional and instructive at start, and more supportive and encouraging in the end. However, the results show that it‘s unclear if the amount of help and support the students receive from the teacher is sufficient. The entrepreneurial skills, for example communication ability and creativity are being developed the most when they are connected to economical work assignments. Regarding the cooperation ability it is unclear if the ability is being developed due to the fact that the results show that students tend to cooperate with their friends and the work load being unequally shared in the JA business.