Browsing by Subject "yrittäjyyslinjaukset"

Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial skills are recognized as an important asset in the transition phase of society that we are living in. The attitude climate in entrepreneurship education is mainly positive and has developed significantly over the past decades in Finland. The importance of entrepreneurship education as part of the Education Curriculum has been strengthened since the 1990s. Despite this, the role of entrepreneurship education in the everyday life of elementary schools is small. In my research, I wanted to find out why entrepreneurship education does not appear in basic education according to POPS (2014)? The goal of my research was to form an understanding of the current state of entrepreneurship education in basic education based on the views of entrepreneurship education experts, and thereby define measures that support the future of entrepreneurship education in basic education. I approached the research question through three sub-questions: "What kind of role does entrepreneurship education have for the individual and society?", "What kind of opportunities and challenges are associated with entrepreneurship education?" and "What kind of views do entrepreneurship education experts have about the future of entrepreneurship education in basic education?" My research was based on the theory of entrepreneurship education (e.g. Seikkula-Leino 2018, Lackéus 2017) and guidelines defining entrepreneurship education. The research was carried out as a qualitative case study by interviewing seven expert teachers of entrepreneurship education and was analyzed using content analysis methods. The research results showed that entrepreneurship education has a significant role for the individual and society. The main influencing factors of entrepreneurship education were the attitude climate, financial resources and the role of teachers. The most important challenges were the lack of teacher training and teachers' skills, as well as the school's marginal conditions and lack of resources for multidisciplinary learning that crosses subject boundaries. In their views, the experts criticized the division of subjects and knowledge-based nature of the current school and emphasized that the school should serve the student's interests more strongly than it currently does. As conclusions, POPS should provide a stronger backbone for entrepreneurship education than at present, which forms an integral learning path for basic education. POPS should strengthen its concreteness and clarity, as well as the importance of multidisciplinary and broad competence skills. So that in the future every student has equal opportunities to receive entrepreneurship education, the Board of Education must use financial resources and training to support the realization and implementation of POPS in elementary schools and university teacher training more strongly than at present. School curricula should include an annual calendar of entrepreneurship education, and the management should provide sufficient resources for teaching that crosses subject boundaries.