A global entrepreneurship wind is supporting or obstructing democracy in schools : a comparative study in the North and the South
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Date
Authors
Leffler, Eva
Svedberg, Gudrun
Botha, Melodi
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Umeå University
Abstract
Policy documents for schools and education are being increasingly standardised all over the world and some research claims that a global curriculum is developing in which aspects such as entrepreneurship, lifelong learning and sustainable development are common denominators. This is regarded as a sign that economic rationality is gaining more and more ground in education alongside, or at the expense of, a democratic educational ideal. The aim of this study is to discuss one of these aspects, entrepreneurship, as a concern for schools and education and to put entrepreneurship in relation to the democracy-fostering mission of education. What do the policy documents have to say about entrepreneurship? Is there an inherent opposition between the entrepreneurial and the democratic justification of education? The paper is organised in two steps. The first step illustrates the global spread of entrepreneurship in policy documents for education through examples from the north and the south, respectively, in this case Sweden and South Africa. The second step deals with the concept of “democracy”, which is of crucial relevance to education. Both connections and conflicts between fostering entrepreneurship and fostering democracy are discussed, and an integrative perspective is tested as an alternative to dualistic attitudes.
Description
Keywords
Democracy in schools, Comparative studies
Sustainable Development Goals
Citation
Leffler, E, Svedberg, G & Botha, M 2010, 'A global entrepreneurship wind is supporting or obstructing democracy in schools : a comparative study in the North and the South', Education Inquiry, vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 309-328. [http://www.use.umu.se/english/research/EducationInquiry]