Abstract

Entrepreneurship is valued for its economic and social benefits, but also to cultivate the characteristics required by learners to deal with the demands of the twenty-first century. Entrepreneurship education develops learners’ entrepreneurship knowledge, skills, characteristics, and mindsets. Several serious economic and social dilemmas (including high youth unemployment) occur in South Africa, and entrepreneurship education could contribute to addressing these dilemmas. Previous research revealed that entrepreneurship education appears infrequently and in isolated subjects in the South African school curriculum. These entrepreneurship education shortcomings in the South African school curriculum therefore needed to be investigated in an effort to revisit the curriculum to present learners with more opportunities to benefit from effectual entrepreneurship education. To support this quest, a literature review grounded in a constructivist approach to determine international best practice was used to explore how entrepreneurship education is being approached globally. The set of best practices was analysed and compared to current entrepreneurship education in South Africa, using curriculum document analysis, which revealed several areas for improvement of entrepreneurship education in this school curriculum. These insights were used to develop a set of guidelines that could be used to address the entrepreneurship education inadequacies in the current South African school curriculum, thereby contributing to the improvement of South African learners’ entrepreneurship education. An advantageous ripple effect could be expected for South Africa if learners utilise their entrepreneurship education to address the economic and social dilemmas that the country has to deal with.

摘要

企业家精神不仅因其经济和社会效益而受到重视，而且还可以培养学习者应对二十一世纪的需求所需要的特征。创业教育可以培养学习者的创业知识，技能，特征和思维方式。南非发生了若干严重的经济和社会困境（包括青年失业率高），企业家精神教育可能有助于解决这些困境。先前的研究表明，企业家精神教育很少出现在南非学校课程中的个别科目中。因此，需要研究南非学校课程中的这些企业家精神教育缺陷，以期重新审视该课程，为学习者提供更多机会，使其从有效的企业家精神教育中受益。为了支持这一追求，以建构主义方法为基础确定国际最佳实践的文献综述被用于探索如何在全球范围内开展创业教育。通过课程文档分析，分析了这组最佳实践，并将其与南非当前的企业家精神教育进行了比较，这揭示了该学校课程中需要改进的几个领域的企业家精神。这些见解被用来制定一套指导方针，可用于解决当前南非学校课程中的创业精神教育不足，从而有助于改善南非学习者的创业精神教育。如果学习者利用他们的创业教育来解决南非必须应对的经济和社会困境，那么对南非将产生有利的连锁反应。