Entrepreneurship: A Review of Perceptions, Indices and Interplay with the School Curriculum

Get Complete Project Material File(s) Now! »

The Greco-Roman ideals of curriculum relevancy

Accolades for classic torchbearers in the search for a relevant curriculum in the GrecoRoman times go to Plato and his student Aristotle. Plato’s dialogues Crito, Protagoras, Meno, Phaedro and The Apology are replete with curricular innuendoes. In The Republic, Plato explicitly sets out his ideas of a relevant curriculum. « He saw education as essential to the development of the republic because citizens must be enlightened in order to provide maximum contribution to their particular station » (Schubert, 1986:56). Plato’s relevant curriculum was « a dual curriculum model » (Mthunzi, 1992:21) providing an academic curriculum for « his men of gold » (the elite) and a vocational curriculum for « men of baser metals » silver and bronze (people oflower social strata). To Plato and his adherents, a relevant curriculum was one that increased the recipient’s horizon without altering the social parameters within which the recipient operated. The Platonic curriculum was broad, comparing favourably with the modem curriculum in schools; « it extended from the age of six to eighteen »(Schubert, 1986:57) and included mathematics, music and gymnastics.

Nineteenth and twentieth century initiatives at attaining curriculum

relevancy The period which Kliebard (1982a) refers to as « a crucible for curriculum change » was heralded by, among many other early European educational reformers, Pestalozzi, (1746 – 1827). It was at this time that the relevancy of the traditional curriculum comprising the classics, Greek and Latin was questioned. According to the educational historian Knight, (in Ornstein and Hunkins, 1993:75) Pestalozzi « probably more than any other educational reformer, laid the basis for modem school and helped reform elementary school practice. » Pestalozzi maintained that a relevant curriculum was based on « the natural development of the child and his or her sensory influences ». Children had to learn through their senses and not through the age-old delivery method of narration. Pestalozzi argued for a curriculum, which centralised the needs and aspirations of the child. To him, the universe of all relevant curricular activities was the child. He argued for a relevant utilitarian curriculum, which prepared pupils’ for « complete living » (Mthunzi, 1992:22).

Determining curriculum relevancy through epistemology

In the twentieth century, the literature on curriculum relevancy has been largely influenced by philosopher scholars such as Cheney, Ravitch, Finn and Bennet (Resnick and Klopfer, 1989:VI). These scholars have argued for placing disciplinary knowledge at the core of all curricular activities. To them and their adherents, a relevant curriculum was one whose central ingredient was the delivery of « major concepts and understanding needed by citizens. » The intellectual traditionalists (as Schubert, (1986) refers to them) believed in classics as accumulated wisdom which can develop the mind and the power to reason. Barrow, (1984:85) a firm supporter ofthis perspective had this to say: « The notion that the school curriculum should develop the mind .. .is surely substantially correct. As we have seen, education is cognitive development. Since a major function of school is to educate, the school curriculum must be concerned to develop the mind. »

Curriculum relevancy through axiology

A survey ofliterature on the history of education (Ullich, 1955 and Butts, 1973) reveals that many attempts have been made by educationists to unpack the perennial problem of curriculum relevancy through the platform of axiology. The question; « What knowledge is most worth? » has occupied the minds of great educationist philosophers from Aristotle, Quintillion, Tolstoy, Montessori, Dewey, Spencer, right up to modem educationists such as Peters, Barrow and Schubert among many others. The premise here is that if « worthwhile knowledge » could be identified and isolated then the problem of curriculum relevancy would be laid to rest as it would imply weaving all educational activities 46 around that « worthwhile knowledge » for transmission to the future generations. The question of worthwhile knowledge defines the essence of the whole business of axiology as a basis for curriculum relevancy.

Needs, Interests and utility as curriculum relevancy determinants

The children’s needs have been proposed as a major determinant of curriculum relevancy. The proponents argue that the curriculum planner has to consider primarily the needs of the individual learner and the needs of society in order to produce a relevant curriculum. In Botswana, it is the official policy of the Ministry of Education that teaching and learning should emphasise the needs of the learners (Republic of Botswana, 1994) and should « utilise innovative learner centred approaches to teaching » (Curriculum Development and Evaluation, 1997:3). Viewed superficially, the « needs » rhetoric seems logical; yet, the concept of « needs » is fraught with problems. Dearden, (in Levit, 1971:91) put a persuasive argument that needs are normative and therefore vary according to individuals. In fact the youth have a wide range of individual differences. In line with this observation, the task of accommodating individual students’ needs in order to produce a relevant curriculum would be a mammoth task which curriculum planers would be unequal to. The New Revised National Policy on Education (Republic of Botswana, 1994) does not define what the needs of the pupils ought to be and therefore, the need argument remains on the realm of rhetoric in Botswana.

An overview of the evolution of entrepreneurship

There has never been a consensus on what enterprise or an entrepreneur is, (Low and MacMillan in Jennings, 1994:15) the words have been used interchangeably and have been attached to a plethora of initiatives more for the cachet of their seemingly desirable label than for their appropriateness of usage (Bridge, et.a1.1998: 35). Entrepreneurship, as a field of study with its own cannons, axioms and disciplinary parameters is a relatively new phenomenon in the educational landscape. Hills and Morris, (1998:39) point out that researchers have only begun to « generate new knowledge and to seek confirmation of its validity … and have only begun to create concepts, the building blocks of theory ». As an independent field of study, it has received a relatively lukewarm reception in many universities and less acceptance in developing countries of Africa and Latin America (Chusimir, 1988:71-74). In South Africa,  » quite a number of schools … are actively engaged in entrepreneurship education » (Gouws, 1997 :9) whilst in Botswana, it has received a passing mention in Vision 2016 (Presidential Task Group, 1997:3).

Contents :

• Dedication
• Declaration
• Acknowledgements
• Abstract
• Contents
• Tables
• List of figures
• Chapter 1 Background and Orientation of the Problem
  • 1.1 Introduction
  • 1.2 Awareness of the problem
  • 1.3 Problem statement
  • 1.4 Research questions
  • 1.5 Aims
  • 1.6 Definition of terms
  • 1.7 Demarcation, scope and limitations of the study
  • 1.8 Research method
  • 1.9 Programme ofinvestigation
  • 1.10 Conclusion
• Chapter 2 A Conceptual Analysis of Curriculum Relevancy
  • 2.1 Introduction
  • 2.2 Defining the curriculum
  • 2.3 Images of curriculum relevancy
  • 2.4 An overview of the contributions to the search for a relevant curriculum
  • 2.5 Some conceptions of curriculum relevancy in the Ancient World
  • 2.6 The Greco-Roman ideals of curriculum relevancy
  • 2.7 Nineteenth and twentieth century initiatives in attaining curriculum relevancy
  • 2.8 Determining curriculum relevancy through epistemology
  • 2.9 Curriculum relevancy through axiology
  • 2.10 Using a selection from culture to determine curriculum relevancy
  • 2.11 Needs, interests and utility as curriculum relevancydeterminants
  • 2.12 Attempts at attaining curriculum relevancy through vocationalisation and the work related curriculum
  • 2.13 The entrepreneurial curriculum: An alternative?
  • 2.14 Conclusion
• Chapter 3 Entrepreneurship: A Review of Perceptions, Indices and Interplay with the School Curriculum
  • 3.1 Introduction
  • 3.2 An overview ofthe evolution ofentrepreneurship
  • 3.3 Entrepreneurial images
  • 3.3.1 The uni-dimensional image of an entrepreneur
  • 3.3.2 The multi-vectotal image of an entrepreneur
  • 3.4 Creativity and innovativeness
  • 3.5 Achievement motivation
  • 3.6 The propensity for taking risks
  • 3.7 Flexibility and adaptability
• Chapter 4 Entrepreneurial Attributes in the Context of Botswana’s Projected Economic Trends
  • 4.1 Introduction
  • 4.2 The agricultural sector
  • 4.3 Entrepreneurial attributes in the context of agro-pastoral industries
  • 4.4 Mining and manufacturing industries
  • 4.5 Entrepreneurial skills and attributes in the context of mining and manufacturing industries
  • 4.6 Conclusion
• Chapter 5 Research Procedures and Methodology
• Chapter 6 Analysis and Discussion of Results ..•.•..•..•……•••.•.••
• Chapter 7 Summary and Recommendations

GET THE COMPLETE PROJECT
TOWARDS A THEORY OF AN ENTREPRENEURIAL CURRICULUM: AN ANALYSIS OF CURRICULUM RELEVANCY IN THE LIGHT OF BOTSWANA’S ECONOMIC NEEDS