Social Entrepreneurship Education: A Holistic Learning Initiative

Abstract

This paper aims to create awareness for the role of Business Schools in nurturing social entrepreneurial initiatives amongst their students and to provide a new learning approach for social entrepreneurship education. Therefore, we first review the literature on social entrepreneurship and identify the competencies that social entrepreneurs need in order to make the difference they aim for. The paper then analyses the current state of social entrepreneurship education and describes a new educational initiative in more detail. This initiative provides full-time master students with the possibility to start a real-life social venture that is supported by a holistic learning structure designed to facilitate cognitive, behavioral, and affective learning. The paper describes the learning approach, methods, contents and expected outcomes of this initiative and ends with a short discussion and conclusion on the future of social entrepreneurship education. Overall, we hope that this paper inspires a vivid exchange on learning approaches in social entrepreneurship education.

Keywords: social entrepreneurship, competencies, education, business schools, holistic learning