Wednesday, June 25th, 2008...10:03 am
Entrepreneurial Education is not the same as market-based education
Derek pointed me to this post on entrepreneurial education by Jon Bischke, CEO of eduFire.com. I like the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation that Jon promotes. Where I don’t agree with him is that entrepreneurial is the same as market-driven. Reading through his post, I remembered Derek Bok’s excellent “Universities in the Marketplace“, which analyses in some detail the detrimental effect that a market focused approach can have on education, providing examples from mostly U.S. universities.
Jon makes a sound argument that top teachers need better compensation and incentives, but in South Africa it is not just the top teachers, but all teachers. Only focusing on the top 1%, and by proxy the top few% of graduates that are taught by these teachers, is not enough. My sense is that many developing countries have a small group (maybe 1%?) of highly-educated and skilled people, but what is needed is a broader middle-class of professionals; and the teachers to educate them.
It’s exciting to see different voices bringing different perspective to the argument for breaking down boundaries, and increasing innovation!
1 Comment
June 25th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Great perspective. I’d add two things to it:
#1 - I agree that market-based education systems and entrepreneurial education are not the same thing. However, I’d offer that a market-based education system is a *prerequisite* for entrepreneurial education to take place. After all, it’s impossible to identify any area of society where people operate entrepreneurially where a market doesn’t exist.
#2 - Second, I think the opportunity for greater compensation at all levels tends to start at the top. Think about golf. How much did the average PGA tour professional make prior to Tiger Woods? A lot less than they do today. Tiger entered the game and revolutionized it and everyone has benefited from that.
I feel the same can be true in education. Give people at the top huge incentives (and not just financial) and you’ll find people at all levels raising their game and therefore increasing the amount of value they are providing.
Leave a Reply