On becoming and being an entrepreneurship educator: a personal reflection

Abstract

Entrepreneurship education has been studied intensively since 1990, yet little attention is given in the literature to the critical role and impact of the individuals that design and deliver it; the entrepreneurship educators. Who are they and what do we understand about them? Professor Alain Fayolle in 2013 challenged us to address this gap. In this article I aim to take on board Fayolle’s challenge and provide a single case of my own experience on the journey to becoming and being an entrepreneurship educator. After exploring the purpose and value of autobiographical methods, I then present the reader with my life story as an emerging entrepreneurship educator in the UK. This provides the basis for self-reflection and self-discovery to highlight key patterns of development that have shaped me as an entrepreneurship educator. Finally I provide personal thoughts on the important role of entrepreneurship educators as entrepreneurial leaders within their institutions. This paper has been produced in the hope that it will encourage other educators to share their journeys so that as a community we can better understand the ‘who’ of entrepreneurship educators.