Thanks for showing your interest in my research. Enterpise Education has
been a highly contentious subject for debate within Education in the UK.
The problem mainly lies in the political rhetoric of 'enterprise' (e.g. The
Tory government's promotion of Britain to become 'the enterprise centre of
Europe'!). The intricate association of enterprise with 'the awareness of
wealth generation', 'national economic performance' has become the basis
for the emphasis of 'life skills', 'competence' under the umbrella term,
'enterprising behaviours' which means different things to different
people. A lot of radical changes in the educational system have been
introduced under the banner of 'enterprise' (e.g. a market-driven higher
education). I'm particularly interested in the pragmatic side of things,
meaning looking into the effect it has in pedagogy: to what extent does the
enterprise ideology effect teaching and learning in the classroom; or do
the enterprise activities promote 'enterprising behaviours' among
learners; and how these learning outcomes feed back to what the
ideological bandwagon propagates? (do they really become better equipped for
the challenge of the 20th century? more self-reliance perhaps? more ready to
be self-employed even?)
As an experimenter, I'm aware of my own bias view (I don't believe in the
bandwagon!). Nevertheless, it is interesting to see how education as a
social engineering vehicle (for better or for worse!) might affect the existing
'culture'. Bearing in mind that the government's support for 'enterprise' is
piecemeal and paradoxical in practice, it is suspected that 'enterprise'
is used as a smokescreen for the bankruptcy of policies in combating
structural unemployment that hits the post-industrial societies rather
than a genuine search for coherent policies in education and training
that gear people up with pragmatic and professional skills that employers
are desperate for (cf. education and training policies in Singapore).
Such is the complexity of life, I find comfort in going 'back to
the basics'! I have done a preliminary exploratory study with the teaching
professions who are at the forefront of educating, looking into how
'teaching in an enterprising way' and 'enterprising behaviours' mean to
them. I'm now drafting my major fieldwork to further explore whether
teachers who are more inclined to enterprise adopt practices which
may be more likely to develop 'enterprising behaviours' among learners
(higher need for achievement, innovative and initiative, etc.)
The above is a snapshot of my past three years' effort (sigh!). Sorry for
being so vague in describing certain concepts and for being carried away
by some (it is quite a task to shorted 30,000 words into a short e-mail).
It would be great to know more about the current understanding of the
psychology of learning in relation to behavioural change and to what
extent enterprising learning/ experiential learning/ learner-centred
approach, etc, manifests such understanding or misunderstanding.
Regards,
Rosa
On Thu, 11 Jan 1996, Angel M.Y. Lin wrote:
> Hi Rosa,
> Your research project sounds interesting... Could you tell us more about
> what the notions of "enterprise education", or "enterprising behavours"?
> And also what did your turtorial centre do for children from 6 to 14?
> Thanks!
>
> Angel
> *****************************************************************
> Angel M.Y. Lin
> Doctoral Candidate
> Modern Language Centre
> Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
> 252 Bloor St. W., Toronto, ON M5S 1V6, Canada
> E-Mail: MYLIN who-is-at OISE.ON.CA
> *******************************************************************
>
>
> On Wed, 10 Jan 1996, Rosa Ma wrote:
>
> > I am a third year Ph.D. student at Durham University in the UK. My
> > thesis is to do with how educational policies and ideologies affect teaching
> > practices which may lead to different learning strategies and outcomes.
> > Special attention is given to the current educational ideology
> > entitled 'enterprise education' and its relationship to the development
> > of the so-called 'enterprising behaviours'.
> >
> > I am originally from Hong Kong. I came to Britain to study
> > Psychology nine years ago. After my graduation, I worked as a research
> > assistant at Psychology in the Univerisity of Bangor, North Wales,
> > investigating into 'corresponding training' for two years. Then I spent one
> > year as a research assistant at the Business School in Durham University
> > looking into how entrepreneurs learn to do their business. Before I came
> > to Britain, I owned a tutorial centre in Hong Kong and I taught children
> > from 6 to 14.
> >
> > I look forward to joining this discussion group.
> >
> > Yours sincerely,
> > Rosa Ma
> >
> >
>
>