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The End of (Enterprise) Education?

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My eldest daughter came home from school last week with something like 10kg of university prospectuses.  She spent much of the week-end browsing the frightening range of courses available. 

And it got me thinking about whether the compulsory education that she has experienced so far, all 13 years of it, have really provided her with an excellent platform for wealth and fulfillment in her adult life.  And the result of my pondering was:

  1. As a premise I believe that education is at its best when it socialises people into the obligations and freedoms of active citizenship, and immunises them against imprisonment by the gilded cages of consumerism.  So why does so much (enterprise) education appear to be about the development of the next generation of employer fodder/entrepreneurs/snake oil sellers?
  2. Is this because we are failing to teach the real meaning of ‘social enterprise’ now that it has become embedded in what Todd Hannula describes as ‘agency led mush’? 
  3. Have we ever properly taught the notion of social enterprise?  Is it really more the the pursuit of ‘enlightened self interest’ in the marketplace?
  4. To release prodigious human energies and good will we must learn how to help people find powerful narratives that give meaning and direction to their lives.  
  5. We must help them to learn about themselves at least as much as we should help them learn about the world outside of them.
  6. We must encourage them to explore what they love and who they can become in pursuit of their potential.
  7. We must educate them to properly understand their own self interest and how this fits with the self interest of others in a mutually sustainable and progressive community. 
  8. We must help them to become experts in using power in pursuit of mutual self interest.
  9. We must help them to build their power in creating the kind of future that they want to see for themselves and for the diverse communities that live on spaceship earth.

Perhaps consideration of these statements might just help us to realise ‘the end of (enterprise) education’.

Community Empowerment Misunderstood? The Role of Enterprise…

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First let’s look at some definitions of community empowerment:

‘Community Empowerment’ is the giving of confidence, skills and power to communities to shape and influence what public bodies do for or with them.

An Action Plan for Community Empowerment: Building on Success – October 2007

Community Empowerment is about people and government, working together to make life better.  It involves more people being able to influence decisions about their communities, and more people taking responsibility for tackling local problems, rather than expecting others to.

The idea is that government can’t solve everything by itself, and nor can the community: it’s better when we work together.

The Scarman Trust Forum Lecture by David Blunkett – December 2004

Helping citizens and communities to acquire the confidence, skills and power to enable them to shape and influence their local place and services, alongside providing support to national and local government agencies to develop, promote and deliver effective engagement and empowerment opportunities.

David Rossington, Director, Local Democracy and Empowerment Directorate, Department for Communities and Local Government

Community empowerment is the process of enabling people to shape and choose the services they use on a personal basis, so that they can influence the way those services are delivered. It is often used in the same context as community engagement, which refers to the practical techniques of involving local people in local decisions and especially reaching out to those who feel distanced from public decisions.

Communities and Local Government Website – August 2008

So it is about giving individuals and communities confidence, skills and power.  But to do what?

…to shape and influence what public bodies do for or with them…

…to influence decisions about their communities…

…taking responsibility for tackling local problems, rather than expecting others to…

…to shape and influence their local place and services…

…providing support to national and local government agencies to develop, promote and deliver effective engagement and empowerment opportunities…

…to shape and choose the services they use on a personal basis, so that they can influence the way those services are delivered…

One of the first lessons that we have to learn is that if we can empower people it is follow their own agenda – to pursue their own self interest.

Not to engage in the government’s agenda or the reform of public services, or local decision making.

I don’t know too many people who are champing at the bit to ‘shape public services’ and to ‘influence local decisions’.  Self interest, if defined at all, is rarely defined in these terms.

If we really want to empower communities (rather than just tap into them for ideas to save a few quid) then we have to start from a very different premise.  And I would argue that it is a premise that puts the individual first.  We have to use informal education processes to make the pursuit of self interest and power both legitimate and effective.

‘Community’ is a by-product of individuals actively pursuing their own self interest with power and confidence.  Such ‘enterprising’ people quickly realise that there is  power in association.  That negotiation matters.  That learning how to help and be helped are critical to making progress.  That shaping infrastructure and the environment matter – because they influence the extent to which any of us can pursue our self interest.  Without good schools, transport and housing how are we to pursue our interests?

So the starting point needs to be not ’empowering communities’ but empowering individuals.   And this is done by helping them to clarify and refine what is in their best self interest – not the community’s or the government’s or anyone else’s. Self interest needs to be properly negotiated with the self interests of others.  It should not be confused with selfishness.

And in parallel to the development of self interest there have to be systems to help people to develop their power to pursue it.  Processes to build confidence, skills and the ability to organise people and resources to make real progress.

So let’s worry less about empowering communities and more about helping individuals to clarify and pursue their own self interest with power and vigour.

Let’s invest time and money in helping individuals learn how to negotiate their self interest in the modern world.

Let’s invest in person centred processes of informal education.

Let’s re-shape formal education to focus more on helping people to become effective negotiators of their own self interest –  rather than passive consumers of a curriculum.

And as a by-product we will develop much healthier, more harmonious and politically engaged communities.

Why not….

Hat tip to Julian Dobson’s post ‘The Great Community Empowerment Heist‘
 which planted the seeds….

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New Measures and New Approaches to Development

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Just recently I have been thinking about what we measure and why we measure it in various development programmes.  In economic development, measures are based on productivity, a measure usually derived from Gross National Product or Gross Domestic Product.  Anything likely to increase the productivity of the economy is deemed to be a good thing and pursued wholeheartedly.

This has led to a long term and persistent bias towards the pursuit of productivity gains – rather than to investing in establishing a context from which productivity will emerge.

Consider this from Bobby Kennedy from almost 50 years ago:

‘Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product … counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for those who break them. It counts the destruction of our redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and the cost of a nuclear warhead, and armored cars for police who fight riots in our streets. It counts Whitman’s rifle and Speck’s knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.

Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it tells us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.’

Robert F. Kennedy Address, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, March 18, 1968

Seems pretty close to the mark even 50 years later.

  • Why did this voice of reason not prevail?
  • Could it prevail now?
  • Should it?

Call for Papers – Anyone Up for It?

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International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research Special Issue on Developing Enterprising Individuals

In 1993 Gustafson suggested that entrepreneurship education would be an ideal context for students to address “their identity, objectives, hopes, relation to society, and the tension between thought and action”.

In 1995 Kourilsky commented on the over-focus of much of entrepreneurship education on business management rather than other aspects such as recognition of opportunities.

…the traditional focus on business and new venture management provides an inadequate basis for responding to societal needs and proposes the wider notion of ‘enterprise’ (Gibb, 2002).

HALLELUJAH!  We say it – but we don’t do it!

Anyone interested in helping me put together a paper?

My only question is that if academics have been onto this for almost 20 years – how come they have had little or no impact on enterprise education  or business support?