Educating prospective entrepreneurship researchers: The case of a summer school as a learning community

Alexander Chepurenko*, Olga Belousova, Aard Groen

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

    65 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    The paper describes the case of the European entrepreneurship summer school (EESS) supported by a consortium of universities from different countries. The paper develops a set of theoretical propositions and practical recommendations for creating a learning community and space around a summer school activity in the context of a larger ecosystem encouraging students to choose a career in the respective area. The core elements building the innovativeness of the concept of this educational initiative are analyzed. First, it is the complementarity of expertise which shapes a teachers’ learning community’. Second, it is the active involvement of students achieved through preselection of motivated participants, coaching, and an individual and group work. Third, it is a creation of a safety feeling among participants to increase the mutual trust and intensive interactions among students. Forth, it is the co-opetition among students collaborating but also competing with the group-project presentations. Fifth, it is the pre-school preparation of students to achieve a minimal level of common knowledge of related concepts and techniques. The limitations of the EESS model are: (1) the international team of teachers, (2) the geographical dispersion which negatively contributes to the students’ pre-school learning community, (3) the volunteering activity of the organizers and teaching staff, which is limited by their main workload, (4) the financial model which does not allow to become sustainable without a support of the participating universities.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)393–410
    Number of pages18
    JournalEntrepreneurship Education
    Volume3
    Issue number4
    Early online date21-Sept-2020
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2020

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Educating prospective entrepreneurship researchers: The case of a summer school as a learning community'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this