Bringing Entrepreneurship into Visual Arts and Music Classrooms: An Evaluation of Basic Education Arts Curriculum Implementation Strategies

Abstract

ABSTRACT This qualitative case study investigated the extent to which the Basic Education arts curriculum in Botswana, specifically visual arts and music, prepared learners for entrepreneurship. It involved ten teachers and twenty students who were purposively selected and interviewed. Education policies were also examined to diagnose their status in promoting entrepreneurship skills. The findings revealed no evidence of learners’ exposure to entrepreneurship skills in both primary and junior secondary school music education while in visual arts it was only taught to junior secondary level three students. Students felt inadequately prepared to become professional artists during lessons. Thus, the study recommends inclusion of entrepreneurship education in all basic education arts disciplines and in teacher-training arts curriculum to prepare teachers to integrate it when teaching the arts.