Contextualizing Entrepreneurship Education Teaching Practice – Investigated in the University of Applied Sciences Setting

In this dissertation, I investigate the contextualization of entrepreneurship education teaching practice. The dissertation is anchored in (1) context theories, (2) entrepreneurship education theories, and (3) entrepreneurship education teaching practice theories, which comprise the theoretical frame of
reference for the work.

The dissertation contributes new knowledge by mapping and unveiling the aspects of contextual influences and consequences for entrepreneurship education in the development of teaching practices investigated in the setting of a university of applied sciences. The dissertation consists of five articles.
From a methodological perspective based on actor’s view and grounded in social constructionism, I investigate literary, conceptually, and empirically the following main research question (RQ): How is entrepreneurship education contextualized in the HEI setting of universities of applied sciences and
construed to teaching practices and educational development strategies?
All higher education institutions (HEIs) face pressure to implement entrepreneurship education in degree programs and curriculum designs. How these entrepreneurial teaching activities are adapted to specific educational contexts is, however, a complex issue to investigate. This is because of the
multidimensional and multifaceted nature of circumstances and significances of how context matters.

Therefore, a basic premise of the dissertation is that the development of entrepreneurship education teaching practice is context dependent.
I structure the dissertation around two offsets. The first is a horizontal synergy among Articles A, B, and C, where context and signature pedagogies are studied and positioned as parts of the theoretical and conceptual anchors from which to understand the work. The second offset is the vertical synergy with the in-depth empirical investigations of context in entrepreneurship education (Articles D and E), which guides the interrelations between these findings from investigating the university of applied sciences setting and the conceptual findings in articles A, B, and C.

The empirical setting is that of the university of applied sciences is relevant because there is a mutual dependency between this type of HEI and professional practice. In prior studies, the relationship with
professional practice in a vocational setting has been found to influence teaching practices and alignment of purposes in education. However, how entrepreneurship education teaching practice should be differentiated when a close relationship with professional practice coexists is an overlooked aspect.
The first article is based on a systematic literature review that contributes with the important distinction between “framing factors” and “context elements within span of control” of the entrepreneurship educator. Our analysis shows that these contextual aspects are distributed at the national and
international (macro); regional, local, and university (meso); and program and classroom (micro) levels. Related hereto is the framing of who, what, where, and when associated with pertinent didactical questions.

In the second article, we build on these insights to investigate how teaching’s focus on context can be amplified through a hands-on research-based tool named The Context Hive. The conceptual article demonstrates how entrepreneurial agency affects, constructs, and forms contexts in educational settings. The article contributes to the classic individual-opportunity nexus by adding context and raises new relevant didactical questions regarding the application in the context-infused entrepreneurship classroom.
In universities of applied sciences, being the empirical setting, I focus on the dissertation, the distinct context dependency of entrepreneurship education is the adjustment of both educational activities and institution to align with the professional purpose. The professional purpose is rooted in the disciplinary
knowledge bases and disciplinary developed didactical approaches. The adjustment to align and integrate entrepreneurial purposes with professional purposes makes the university of applied sciences an interesting distinct higher education setting characteristically different from the traditional
university, business school, or gymnasium/high school because entrepreneurship education here is developed and modified in close interplay with professional practice.

We use the findings from the first two articles to elaborate the context discussion in relation to different HEI settings, and the third article presents an examination of how context puts its signature on entrepreneurial pedagogy, investigated through the concept of signature pedagogies. We conceptually
develop a revised signature pedagogy (MK-3) with relevance for the university of applied sciences setting. In the article, we suggest that entrepreneurship education is always obligated to be contextualized for a specific discipline or profession. This raises the critical issue of how such a normative position is practiced in the classroom, where educators face the complex challenge of
balancing and integrating the often-discrepant purposes of entrepreneurship education (i.e., the entrepreneurial, the professional, the organizational, and the general educative).

The premise of affiliation with professional practice in universities of applied sciences raises a range of concerns and challenges related to balancing these purposes. Those challenges affect the HEI setting at various sociological levels: macro, meso, and micro. Specifically, at the meso level, contextual
alignment raises a concern about integration because universities of applied sciences must apply entrepreneurship education in their strategic and educational development efforts. Our study for Article D highlights that this transition requires faculty to engage actively in the process of translating and
contextualizing curricular and extracurricular activities into the HEI setting. In article D, we empirically investigate how the HEI setting of VIA University College in Denmark embraces becoming an entrepreneurial university of applied sciences. The study demonstrates the variety and range of strategic
initiatives under the heading of “the entrepreneurial university,” and through a theoretical lens of role transitions, we show how curricular and extracurricular educational activities are transformed through processes of replication, determination, and exploration to fit, translate, and adjust entrepreneurship
education to the context of the university of applied sciences.

In the particular setting of the university of applied sciences, educators from degree programs are further challenged with the burden to balance educational purposes at the micro level. The entrepreneurship educator is the hands-on agent who daily translates and integrates entrepreneurial and professional
purposes with the general educative one. The entrepreneurship educator translates this into curriculum programs and course plans that address the what, how, why, and when in a contextualized manner.

The fifth article (Article E) takes a micro-level educator perspective and presents an empirical examination of how entrepreneurship educators construct teaching philosophies to contextualize their teaching practice. The study highlights how entrepreneurship educators develop these distinct teaching
philosophies to structure didactic principles in the planning, execution, and evaluation of their teaching practice. Furthermore, educators develop a distinct vocabulary that translates entrepreneurship education into the disciplinary educational setting. The close connection to professional practice
becomes a focus for them to nurture relationships outside the institution and relate these outbound contextual aspects informed by professional practice to the entrepreneurial purposes.

The dissertation’s main contribution is a refined understanding of context in entrepreneurship education and empirical illustration of how contextualized teaching practices for entrepreneurship education are developed in the context of a university of applied science. As part of this contribution, the dissertation
problematizes ongoing discussions about the purpose of entrepreneurship education and is intended to extend the discourse to a didactical discussion about context awareness and educational development.
I further theorize on the pedagogical aspects of entrepreneurship education. Finally, I reposition the signature pedagogies and make them relevant to the context discussion.

Based on my studies, I propose a framework for contextualizing entrepreneurship education teaching practice that combines the professional, the entrepreneurial, the organizational, and the general purposes of entrepreneurship education. I argue that the practical implications hereof specifically require a new elaborated focus on educational development for all types of HEIs, especially universities of applied sciences.