Last updated January 26, 2008
Organizer: Brian McKenzie (CSU East Bay); facilliator: Joel West (San José State)
Panelists: Norris Krueger (Boise State), Helder Sebastiao (U. San Diego), Bill Schulte (Shenandoah University), Mukesh Sud (Augustana College)
The Non-traditional Academics Committee of the Entrerpeneurship division focuses on ways of leveraging the knowledge of active entrepenuers, adjunct instructors and academics with non-traditional backgrounds to advance entrepreneurship educatino.
In 1988, Clark Kerr, the former President of the University of California, wrote:
The cherished view of some academics that higher education started out on the Acropolis of scholarship and was desecrated by descent into the Agora of materialistic pursuits led by ungodly commercial interests and scheming public officials and venal academic leaders is just not true for the university systems that have developed at least since 1200 A.D. If anything, higher education started in the Agora, the market place, at the bottom of the hill and ascended to the Acropolis on top of the hill. . . . Mostly it has lived in tension, at one and the same time at the bottom of the hill, at the top of the hill, and on many paths in between. (Kerr, 1988)
Nontraditional academics have played a significant role in the development of entrepreneurship education. Many early entrepreneurship instructors were successful entrepreneurs who had taken up teaching (Vesper & McMullan, 1997). However, it is generally recognized that a theoretical understanding must be combined with practical insight to create a successful entrepreneurship program (Fiet, 2001, p.106)
This seminar proposes to gather a number of nontraditional academics in a round table discussion of how entrepreneurship education can be improved through the understanding of the role of nontraditional academics. The facilitator will draw together results from topics which will be centered around both educational issues (what does non-traditional mean and why should we care) and strategic issues (what should the Non-traditional Academics Committee of the Entrepreneurship Division plan in moving forward). Hosts have been designated for tables discussing the following topics:
Fiet, J. O. (2001). The pedagogical side of entrepreneurship theory. Journal of Business Venturing, 16(2), 101-117.
Kerr, C. (1988). Higher education in service to the labor market: Contributions and distortions. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania, Institute for Research in Higher Education.
Vesper, K., & McMullan, E. (1997). New venture scholarship versus practice: When entrepreneurship academics try the real thing as applied research. Technovation, 17(7), 349-358.