Educational entrepreneurship in Australian community languages schools: An analysis of ethnic principals’ experience and practice

Abstract

Educational entrepreneurship refers to the competence of educational entrepreneurs in making changes and taking initiatives in vision-driven innovation and value creation. Research of educational entrepreneurship needs further investigation, especially in the context of complementary education. This paper explores the educational entrepreneurship of three principals working in the context of community language schools (CLSs) in Australia. Using a set of educational entrepreneurship traits as an analytical tool, this study conducts a detailed qualitative analysis of the interviews and reflective journals of three CLS principals to reveal their educational entrepreneurial traits displayed in the process of establishing and running the CLSs. Findings indicate that these principals display multiple educational entrepreneurial traits in combination when dealing with challenges encountered in their individual context. The empirical data enriches the understanding of the distinctive features of educational entrepreneurship, especially the influence of prior experience. The findings reveal some key traits and practices of educational entrepreneurship amongst CLS principals in the Australian context. This study provides context-specific empirical evidence to better understand the nature and features of educational entrepreneurship. The findings highlight the need for more research and explicit training of entrepreneurial skills for school leaders in non-mainstream schools.