Higher Education as if the World Mattered (Edinburgh)
Thursday, 25 April 2013 - Friday, 26 April 2013
Social Entrepreneurship as if Education mattered
Abstract
In terms of curricular design, the subject of Social Entrepreneurship (SE) stands on a
skill based concept of education, i.e., focused on capacities as the expected learning
outcome. Entrepreneurship is perceived as transversal skill domain. SE Education is a
rather recent field, given the novelty of SE itself. Our first assumption is that Education
and SE are bonded in two ways: on one side, the process of Social Entrepreneurship,
related to the promotion of social change through skill capacitating has a strong
educative dimension; on the other side, education is itself defined as a crucial field of
opportunity for Social Entrepreneurship, given its interconnectivity to all social
systems. This paper is based on a review to the Higher Education Programs of Social
Entrepreneurship in Portugal and focused on debating the related conceptions of
education and curricular design in this field, as well as the relation between education
and social change.
Outline
First of all, SE differs from the economic for profit model of entrepreneurship by the
fact that its main goal is the resolution of social problems.
SE is a rather recent field of study, which has gained public attention particularly in the
turning of the XX century. The object of this field is the reality of non-profit
organizations that convey corporate management concepts and methods in order to
achieve wider social value through organizational innovation and financial
sustainability. The social value that SE is all about involves an integrated conception of
social work that includes material and immaterial needs, and that is focused on the
resolution of social problems by fighting its’ causes rather than by the alleviation of the
symptoms (Parente, Costa & Diogo, 2013).
We can state that the first initiatives of SE occurred in the 80’s in the USA, after the
Reaganomics had forced the non-profit organizations to find sources of income other
than the state budget (Bielefeld, 2009; Boschee & McClurg, 2003). In Europe, more
recently, the field of social economy has been put back in highlight, particularly in the
context of reduction of the welfare states.
Three main schools of thought on SE have been developed in different geographical
contexts. 1) In the north-American context, the Earned Income School of Thought and
the Social Innovation School of Thought (Defourny & Nyssens, 2010); 2) the European
School of Social Economy (Borzaga, Galera & Nogales, 2008; Evers, 2001); 3) The LatinAmerican School of Solidarity Economy (Quintão, 2004; Laville, 2009; Morais, 2007).
The North-American Schools tend to favor proximity to the market and present a more
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Diogo, Vera. Social Entrepreneurship as if Education mattered.
Higher Education as if the World Mattered (Edinburgh)
Thursday, 25 April 2013 - Friday, 26 April 2013
individual approach; the European School is based on a solid organizational approach
symbolized by the social enterprise; and the Latin-American School is focused on
grassroots organizations, and initiatives of political and economical participation
(Parente, Costa & Diogo, 2013).
Common grounds of all schools of thought are that SE is a process of transformation
directed towards social change. Whether it is mainly an organizational, individual, or
societal transformation, is a question that we do not attempt to answer here. Instead
we focus on the abilities and skills that are required to individuals in order to
participate in social entrepreneurship initiatives, or in other words, to become social
entrepreneurs.
This brings us to Education, and to the debate of how wide is the educative dimension
of social entrepreneurship, since it implies learning new concepts, new methods, and
developing appropriate skills in order to convey an entrepreneurial attitude to social
intervention.
Before focusing on the particular skills that are implied in the SE Education, one needs
to distinguish between Entrepreneurship Education and Social Entrepreneurship
Education. While the first is purely rooted on subjects such as management and
economics, the second, whilst making use of the methods of such disciplines, is
inspired in a wide set of other sciences, such as sociology and social work. Ramos
(1993 in Gavidia, 2002:23) points out that “only significant knowledge can mobilize
attitudes”, implying that the conceptual frames and the social context are the basis of
attitude development. Therefore, the entrepreneurial attitude is expressed by
different activities and behaviours in profit and non profit initiatives.
Roughly, we can distinguish three approaches to the design of curricula: 1) a model
based in the expected outcomes of the learning process; 2) a model based on units of
content and 3) a model based on learning and teaching activities. To SE Education, the
first model is appropriate, in the perspective of capacity development as the expected
learning outcomes (Coll & Martín, 2004:15-17).
The set of skills implied in the curricula of SE are divided in three main dimensions: a
strategic, creative and critical vision focused on social needs and framed by a holistic
perspective; a powerful will or determination resilient to adversity and scarcity; and
the necessary knowledge and ability to create and manage the entrepreneurial process
in a given context. This last dimension includes communication and relational skills,
team work ability, as well as, work organization skills, discipline and flexibility to work
with different methodologies (Fuchs, Werner & Wallau, 2008:368). According to
Johannisson and Madsen (2000) this set of skills is far from corresponding to
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Diogo, Vera. Social Entrepreneurship as if Education mattered.
Higher Education as if the World Mattered (Edinburgh)
Thursday, 25 April 2013 - Friday, 26 April 2013
personality traits. On contrary, it can be developed by learners when curricula are
designed with that purpose.
The European Union has recommended the inclusion of Entrepreneurship, as a
transversal skill, in the education systems of all member states (European Council,
2000), given its use in everyday life (European Commission, 2002; 2004). As a
transversal skill, entrepreneurship can be assumed as an important dimension of the
process of personal development (Gadivia, 2002:23).
In few words, the concept of transversal in education refers to values, attitudes, skills
and behaviours (Gadivia, 2002:16). The entrepreneurial attitude, related to the
propensity to take risks, tenacity and the will to create, is very much based on the
ability to learn by experience, that Smith et. al. (2008) refer to as grounded learning
and recommend as the methodology for entrepreneurship education. Coll and Martín
(2004:18) point out that on a skill based perspective of education, the very function of
school is to prepare individuals to keep learning and apply their knowledge in the
benefit of the community. In Portugal, this perspective of education focused on the
experience of the learner, was the inspiration of the cooperative movement involved
in the struggle to extend the national education system in the beginning of the XX
century (Sérgio, 2008[1918]).
Education is recognized as one of the crucial fields for Social Entrepreneurship, given
its interconnectivity with all social systems, that is, its potential of social
transformation, particularly through social and personal development (Hartigan &
Elkington, 2008:108-112). Education has been included virtually in all thorough
development programs and it has been the leitmotiv for many political projects and
non profit organization initiatives. Social change and Education seem to walk hand in
hand. Would it seem unreasonable to believe the development of education systems
should highlight the subjects and methodologies that promote social change? As final
goal, what does all science seek for, other than social change on pursue of
development?
Nevertheless, the specificity of Social Entrepreneurship Education has been neglected
by both the Portuguese and the European authorities, in a clear misconception of its
potential to promote sustainable development, facing contexts of increasing social
exclusion and inequalities.
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Diogo, Vera. Social Entrepreneurship as if Education mattered.
Higher Education as if the World Mattered (Edinburgh)
Thursday, 25 April 2013 - Friday, 26 April 2013
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