Entrepreneurship education with companies: Teachers organizing school-company interaction

Abstract

Previous research into entrepreneurial learning has focused mainly on defining its aims; however, there seems to be little discussion on understanding the barriers or incentives involved when carrying out the pedagogical solutions that would enable entrepreneurial learning. In this study, we examine basic education level schools’ cooperation with outside partners, especially from the school principals’ and teachers’ viewpoints. The study aims to understand the perspectives of teachers and principals on planning and organizing school-company interaction. To do this, content analysis was used in this qualitative study. The data were collected via semi-structured interviews with school teachers and principals, involving a total of 35 people working in basic education. The findings of the study show that principals and teachers intentionally select long-term cooperation methods to meet the aims of entrepreneurial learning. On the other hand, teachers that have chosen to apply short-term school-company cooperation methods have highlighted the ease of these methods rather than learning. Finally, our findings suggest that planning and organizing entrepreneurial learning would benefit from school-level commitment where collaboration between teachers and between teachers and company representatives is valued. We believe that would lead to more satisfied teachers and longer-term school-company cooperation, and also believe that short-term school-company cooperation methods would better meet the aims of entrepreneurial learning.