Pedagogical Entrepreneurship in Teacher Education Curricula. Comparison of Latvian and Finnish Teacher Education Programs

Earlier research has shown that teachers do not feel sufficiently prepared to develop entrepreneurial competences in the classroom, both theoretically and practically, and that the lack of pedagogical entrepreneurship competences hinders the development of entrepreneurial skills in the learning processes. The aim of this study is to analyse the extent to which entrepreneurial skills are emphasised in current teacher preparation programs and to identify differences between Latvian and Finnish educational programs. Curricula and course outlines from five teacher education programs in two different contexts were analysed. Deductive qualitative content analysis was based on 14 pedagogical entrepreneurship components identified in the previous studies. The results indicate that there are major differences between the programs how entrepreneurial skills were emphasised in the curricula and course outlines. In the data from Latvia, 10 from 14 components of pedagogical entrepreneur were acknowledged fully or partly at least in one of the four programs’ curricula and course outlines. In addition, four components were not identified in any of the programs’ curricula. In contrast, in the Finnish teacher education program, all 14 components of pedagogical entrepreneurship were acknowledged fully or partly in the analysed curriculum and course outlines. This bears consequences for what kind of opportunities to learn pedagogical entrepreneurship students have during their teacher education studies. Based on the research findings, more attention should be paid to entrepreneurship competences in teacher education curricula.