Entrepreneurship education as first-person transformation: Interiority as an operationalizing mechanism

Abstract

The case for repositioning entrepreneurship education (EE) as first-person transformation in classrooms envisioned as spaces for practical reasoning, has lately received significant scholarly attention. This case aligns with a broader need to generate more impactful learning outcomes that accurately reflect the nature of the entrepreneurship phenomenon. Notwithstanding, how a theory-praxis nexus results in first-person transformation remains underdeveloped. Accordingly, this paper advances interiority as an operationalizing mechanism for developing entrepreneurship as first-person transformation. Thus, we contribute to shifting the focus of learning from what we know, to how we know in a process of intellectual self-awareness. We then offer a conceptual framework that connects three realms of knowing: practical, relational, and theoretical, with interiority as the fulcrum. We discuss how this approach contributes to impactful entrepreneurial learning, seen through the emergence of entrepreneurial mindsets in reflective student practice.