Learning to navigate the landscape of participation. On the initiation of students into practices of entrepreneurship (and) education

ABSTRACT Practicing entrepreneurship is important for entrepreneurial learning in institutionalized education. However, research is attentive to how this challenges conventional learning arrangements and requires teachers and students to change familiar ways of relating and participating. In this study, we investigate the landscape of participation in a case of experiential entrepreneurship education for non-business postgraduate students. Employing the notion of legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice, we show how students are initiated into entrepreneurship education practice through three modes of participation: compliance, autonomy and authenticity. Even though these participatory modes make sense one by one, their accumulation created tension. Hereby, we illustrate the complex organization of entrepreneurship education as situated social practices. We theorize by employing a practice theory perspective to explore why tensions may be inherent to widely recognized ideals of best practice in experiential entrepreneurship education. This is in contrast to individual learner oriented explanations.