Bringing social entrepreneurship to schools
From an article by Alison Yang
Alison Yang is an educator, based in Asia, focused on helping students acquire knowledge and skills through exploring real-life situations and issues, which inspires them to look beyond textbooks and conventional curricula for understanding and meaning. Also, through their involvement with communities, within the school or beyond, students establish their identity and develop empathy and respect.
One of articles covered her experience of running a student-led entrepreneurship programme to increase student agency and foster community. Here are some excerpts:
My school provides classes titled Agency in Action in an effort to inspire students to take charge of their education. The programme seeks to provide students a chance to explore their passions, build up executive function skills, and discover how to set goals and develop action plans to achieve their goals. When students are agents in their learning, they are more likely to have “learned how to learn” – an invaluable skill that they can use throughout their lives
To begin an entrepreneur project, the first step was to clarify what agency is and isn’t with teachers. I shared key points of the OECD Student Agency for 2030 framework following a brainstorm. Agency refers to the capacity of students to assume control of their own learning by establishing goals, making decisions, and assessing their progress. Students who exhibit agency collaborate with their teachers or supportive individuals, demonstrate initiative, express curiosity, and hold themselves accountable for effecting changes in their learning setting. The teacher’s responsibility is to offer guidance and direction within a well-organized framework while granting students the autonomy to make their own decisions.
Students greatly benefit from engaging in an entrepreneur project, including practicing various approaches to learning skills, enhancing financial literacy, and developing perseverance and resilience:
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Students are exposed to real-world challenges when developing entrepreneur projects in teams.
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They learn how to negotiate ideas with one another and adopt practical and innovative problem-solving approaches.
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Students need to exercise their critical and creative thinking skills, and become adept at decision-making.
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They conduct market research, make the elevator pitch presentation, practice marketing strategies, and learn how to interact with customers. It deepens their understanding of business dynamics.
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Offers an excellent opportunity for students to develop financial literacy through managing expenses, pricing products, costing time and wages.
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Dealing with obstacles, setbacks, and failures, students can develop perseverance and resilience while dealing with challenges.
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Students learn how to adjust to changing circumstances.
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Provide opportunities for interdisciplinary learning - synthesizing knowledge and understanding from several disciplines.
Here are the steps we took to implement the Entrepreneur Project:
1. Align The Project With The School’s Vision And Values
It’s imperative to ensure the entrepreneur project initiative is in alignment with the mission and guiding principles of the school before getting started. This will guarantee that the project is in accordance with the school vision and supports the creation of a conducive learning environment.
2. Provide Clear Guidelines
To ensure the success of this project, teachers needed clear directions and constant communication about next steps. This entails creating lesson plans and procedures for them to follow as well as assisting students in developing their low-budget business ideas.
3. Use A Project Management Tool
When there are so many moving parts, it is easy to lose track of student progress updates, deadlines, and important communication. Personally, I found Trello is an effective tool for me to manage projects.
4. Identify Supporting Charities With Students
Invite students to identify charities to support was my principal’s idea. In the end, we had three charities to support. Through identifying charities they would like to support, students were encouraged to think about social responsibility and how their business can impact the world beyond the classroom.
5. Organize An Entrepreneur Expo
An essential component of the Entrepreneur initiative is planning the Entrepreneur Expo. Students have the chance to showcase their creations and share their ideas with the larger school community during the Expo. Through interacting with consumers and promoting their business, they develop confidence. Students get the opportunity to market their goods to their fellow students, teachers, and parents during the Expo. They pick some tips on how to spruce up their businesses and interact with clients. They might get inspiration by stopping by several booths to learn how other students have developed their company concepts. Last but not least, they may check the actual profit and expected profit depending on their sales to find out more about pricing tactics.
6. Use A Ticket System For Purchases
We decided to use a ticket system to reduce the risk of students losing money and simplify transactions during the Entrepreneur Expo. Customers were encouraged to pre-purchase the tickets prior to the Expo day and they used these tickets to make purchases from our participating student vendors. This system helped students avoid handling cash and protected them against money loss.
I celebrated the learning of our students. During the Expo, we had a variety of interesting student vendors participating. These included booths offering delicious bakery goods, 3D-printed keychains, postcards, edible jewellery, T-shirts, carnival games, face painting, an escape room, a second hand bookstore and more! Our community raised more than £5000.
Read the full article here.
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From an article by Alison Yang, 10/07/2024