Advancing Entrepreneurship in an Elementary School: A Case Study

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Advancing Entrepreneurship in an Elementary
School A Case Study

• Sibylle Heilbrunn
• Ruppin Academic Center
• Israel

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Introducing the Case

• Misgav elementary school was founded in 1975
  and is located in Emek Hefer, Israel. Today about
  550 pupils from grade 1 to 6 are studying in the
  school and the staff includes 33 teachers. In the
  year 2004 the school principle started to launch
  a development process with the aim to transform
  the formerly regular elementary school into an
  experimental entrepreneurial school.

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A classical case of top-down strategy

• In a typically proactive manner, the school
  principle understood that times are changing and
  that, although embedded in an institutional
  environment of a public school system providing
  schools with pupils from the nearby local
  environment, competitiveness is the name of the
  game.

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Steps of the process

• establishment of a "leading team"
• pilot program focusing on two "entrepreneurial
  centers"
• approached the Experimental Department of the
  Ministry for Education
• mentor of the above and academic counselors
  joined the "leading team" which then started to
  develop a five year program of implementation.

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2007 third year

• Within the framework of "entrepreneurial
  centers", all children participate in a weekly
  two-hour course in entrepreneurship
• The children can choose their "entrepreneurial
  center" which focuses around various subjects
  such as English, mathematics, sciences, ecology,
  arts, improving the school environment, community
  involvement, etc.

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• Grade 2 pupils have an additional weekly lesson
  in "innovative and alternative ways of thinking"
• A RD center has been established focusing on
  information gathering and management
• Products developed by the pupils include
  placemats with mathematical games, TTM (Talk to
  Me) encouraging English language skills, a
  cushion with tranquilizing herbs inside helping
  children to fall asleep, user-friendly garbage
  cans for paper, herbal ice-cream, a bracelet to
  avoid harassment between pupils, etc. All
  products are presented and sold at a yearly fair
  at the end of the school year.

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• All "entrepreneurship centers" talk the same
  language, using concepts such as brain storming,
  team building, feasibility of the idea, resources
  needed to implement the idea, etc.
• Ideas are often implemented in cooperation with
  external partners, who have been approached by
  the children (firms in the environment, companies
  in which parents are working, etc)
• Grade 5 and 6 pupils are mentoring younger
  children in "entrepreneurial centers" together
  with teachers
• Future plans include incorporating
  entrepreneurial ways of teaching into the entire
  core curriculum.

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Conceptual Framework

• The 'entrepreneurship education process' includes
  three stages
• 1. learning about entrepreneurship
• 2. learning to be entrepreneurial
• 3. learning to become an entrepreneur
• (Hytti et.al.,2002 Young and Sexton,1996)

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Organziational Culture

• In order to be innovative, employees have to
• trust management and feel that they receive
  support
• the reward system of the organization has to be
  perceived by the employees as to be focused on
  innovativeness
• not feel extensive work load and stress
• (Chandler, Keller Lyon, 2000)

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Entrepreneurial Profile

• conservative school profile - moderate on the
  principals' proavtivity and low on school
  innovativeness
• calculated profile moderate and both the
  principal's proavtivity and school
  innovativeness
• the initiating profile high on principal's
  proactivity and moderate on school
  innovativeness and
• vigorous entrepreneurial profile high on both
  the principal's proactivity and the school
  innovativeness
• (Eyal Enbar, 2003 pg. 234).

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Entrepreneurial Drive

• ED is based upon
• preference of innovation,
• nonconformity,
• proactive disposition,
• self-efficacy
• achievement motivation.
• "Entrepreneurial drive (ED) is an
  individuals perception of the desirability and
  feasibility to proactively pursue opportunities
  and creatively respond to challenges, tasks,
  needs, and obstacles in innovative ways.
  Individuals with high levels of entrepreneurial
  drive are generally high achievers, possess high
  self efficacy, question the status quo, and have
  a preference for innovative solutions"
• (Florian, et.al, 2007 pg. 26).

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This study is a preliminary investigation of
three interrelated issues

• the entrepreneurial culture in terms of Chandler,
  et.al, (2000),
• the entrepreneurial profile of the school in
  terms of the school profile introduces by Eyal
  and Enbar (2003),
• the entrepreneurial drive of the children based
  upon the concept introduced by Florin, et.al.
  (2007).

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1. Investigating the organizational culture at
Misgav

• Participants 16 teachers of Misgav (15 women, 1
  man)
• Tool structured interview based on Chandler,
  et.al (2000) encompassing three main issues
  trust the management (4 questions), reward system
  (4 questions), work load (3 questions).

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2. Investigating the entrepreneurial profile of
Misgav

• Participants 26 (out of 33) teachers of Misgav
• Tool questionnaire used by Eyal (2000) in order
  to investigate schools in terms of principal's
  proactivity and school innovation. The
  questionnaire is composed of 32 items on a 7
  point Likert scale.

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3. Assessing the impact of entrepreneurial
education on Misgav pupils.

• Participants 90 grade 6 pupils in Misgav and 86
  grade 6 pupils of a conventional elementary
  school in Haifa participated in the study.
• Tool - the entrepreneurial drive questionnaire
  (Florin, et.al. 2007) was translated into Hebrew
  and adapted to school children.

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Findings (1)

• 15 out of 16 teachers feel that they can trust
  the principal and that the reward system
  encourages them to act innovatively.
• Nearly half of the teachers feel that the work
  load is unacceptable.
• A number of teachers reported in the interviews
  that they feel uncomfortable with high degree of
  uncertainty as the how to lead their
  entrepreneurial centers in terms of curricular
  content and pedagogical form.

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Findings (2)
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Findings (3)
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Concluding Remarks

• 1. The investigation of Misgav revealed an
  organizational school culture in which teachers
  feel support and trust from the principal, are
  rewarded in such a way that they are not afraid
  to act entrepreneurial but do to a certain degree
  suffer from exaggerated work load.

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Conclusions (2)

• 2. Misgav can be described as of the initiating
  entrepreneurial profile, with a high degree of
  principal's proactivity and a moderate degree of
  school innovativeness.

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Conclusions (3)

• 3. Misgav's pupils rate higher than pupils
  from a regular school on 3 out of 5 items of
  entrepreneurial drive preference for
  innovation, achievement motivation and proactive
  disposition. The fact that they rate
  significantly lower on the item of
  non-conformity can be explained by the fact that
  they "like" the school and are involved in making
  up the rules.

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In sum

• It seems that Misgav is a rather unique case of
  an experimental entrepreneurial elementary school
  providing rather young pupils with an education
  focused on learning about entrepreneurship,
  learning to become entrepreneurial and learning
  to become an entrepreneur.

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Bibliography

• Chandler, G. N., Keller, C., Lyon, D. W.
  (2000). Unraveling the determinants and
  consequences of an innovation-supportive
  organizational culture. Entrepreneurship Theory
  and Practice, Fall 2000, 59-76.
• Eyal, O. Inbar, D.E. 2003. Developing a public
  school entrepreneurship inventory Theoretical
  conceptualization and empirical examination,
  International Journal of Entrepreneurial behavior
  and Research, 9(6) 221 244.
• Hytti, U.(ed.) 2002. State-of-Art of Entreprise
  Education in Europe Results from the Entredu
  project. Publication published in the Entredu-
  project, Leonardo da-Vinci programme of the
  European Commission Turku, Finland.
• Young, J. and Sexton, D. 1997. Entrepreneurial
  learning A conceptual framework, Journal of
  Enterprising Culture, 5(3) 223-248.