Designing social entrepreneurship education

Abstract

Many scholars consider social entrepreneurship to be a special form of entrepreneurial practice; however, a review of the literature reveals practitioners consider their work to be more of a civil society activity than an entrepreneurial business. This suggests social entrepreneurship education should concentrate on incorporating knowledge of civil society and understandings of theories such as social justice, social identity and social movements. A productive approach to education in this field is to incorporate experiential learning in which students engage actively with social entrepreneurship startup or operation. Assessment involves the student comparing theory with the events that occurred in practice. This paper offers guidance for any university that is considering offering social entrepreneurship education. It also provides an overview of this complex practice that will be helpful for policy makers and commercial firms interested in social business.