Educator professionalization in and for social entrepreneurship : grounding theory in a self-study of practice in curriculum development

Abstract

In the current global socio-economic development corporate success emphasizes social benefits in addition to financial profit gains brought by entrepreneurial actions (Wilenius & Kurki, 2015; Tracey & Phillips, 2007; Driver, 2012). Social entrepreneurship education is both a new territory in higher education and a rapidly growing field for research (Jones, Warner, & Kiser, 2010; Higgins, Smith, & Mirza, 2013). With more than 148 institutions worldwide teaching about social entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship education (SEE) is moving from a wave of growth into a wave of innovation (Brock & Kim, 2011). Educators are expected to take responsibility for SEE by cultivating innovative ways of thinking and modes of pedagogy (Higgins, Smith, & Mirza, 2013).

In this thesis I theorize educator professionalization based on a self-study of my practice in SEE curriculum development. This project accounts for the start one of the first post-graduate programmes in social entrepreneurship in Brazil. I participated in this project in 2015 as an under-graduate student of educational sciences in the University of Oulu, Finland. Integrating the grounded theory methodology (GTM) and self-study of practice (SSP), I examined data generated during the ten months of social entrepreneurship curriculum development. As a self-study I share my understanding of how SEE curriculum development may contribute to educator professionalization. From a GTM perspective this study contributes to the knowledge basis in SEE by theorizing educator professionalization.

Studies on professionalism and professionalization acknowledge work quality as directly influenced by the professional (Jóhannesson, 1996) Meanwhile the context for professional practice strongly influences professional development (Vanassche & Kelchtermans, 2015a). Such reciprocity is confirmed by my theorizing in this study. Furthermore, reflection is examined as a practice in professional development (Schön, 1983; Kalet et al., 2007; Rué, Font, & Cebrián, 2013), and particularly in educator professionalization (Cautreels, 2003; Gillentine, 2006). Extant literature on cosmopolitanism (Josephides, 2000; Mikhaylov & Fierro, 2015; Smith & Jenkins, 2011), reflexivity (Sandywell, 1996; Vertovec & Cohen, 2002), and compassion (Miller, Wesley, & Williams, 2012; Neff & Vonk, 2009) are utilized to increase the scope of the theory I generate via this study.

This study contributes to SEE in two ways. First, the self-study of practice illustrates how challenges for SEE (Miller et al., 2012; Sinha et al., 2014; Tracey & Phillips, 2007) are encountered in curriculum development. Secondly, the grounded theory in this study offers directions for future research in educator professionalization in the field of social entrepreneurship education.