Enterprise Education

Chairs:

Prof Colette Henry, Dundalk Institute of Technology

Breda O’Dwyer, Institute of Technology Tralee

Dr Kelly Smith, University of Huddersfield

Enterprise education literatures have developed significantly over the years, steadily growing to cover topics such as categorization (Garavan & Ó Cinnéide, 1994), aims and objectives (Hytti & O’Gorman, 2004), attitudes and perceptions (Shinnar et al., 2009), pedagogy (Taatila, 2010), effectiveness (Henry, Hill & Leitch, 2003; OECD, 2009; Martin, McNally & Kay, 2013), content frameworks (HETAC, 2013; QAA, 2013) and future research directions (Fayolle, 2013). While enterprise has become a well-established component of most business and management schools, it is – according to Hannon (2006: 297) – sometimes seen as an “inserted” rather than “integrated” element of undergraduate curricula; this is especially the case within non-business disciplines. The growing importance of the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines as important sources of economic growth has placed enterprise education high on government agendas.

Papers presented in this track will contribute to current debates on enterprise education by strengthening the argument for its inclusion across curricula, and generating new theories around aspects relating to its teaching, assessment and evaluation. Submissions that aim to exchange international best practice in enterprise education and/or deal with one or more of the following topics are welcome:

• Enterprise education in the professional and STEM disciplines
• New approaches to evaluating enterprise education
• Innovative teaching and assessment methods in enterprise education
• Enterprise education policy
• Training the enterprise educator
• Introducing enterprise to primary and secondary level education
• The influence of gender in enterprise education