Entrepreneurial Education conference

Sponsored by the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship
Rockford University, Illinois

Call for Papers

The Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship will be hosting a conference at Rockford University, March 13-14, 2016, on Entrepreneurial Education.

On the Entrepreneurial side of the phrase: We live in entrepreneurial times. From the work demand side, there is increasing proportion of employment within entrepreneurial firms and a slow upward trend in the number of startups. From the work-supply side, younger people of this generation express higher levels of aspiration to start their own businesses or to work within entrepreneurial firms. Increasing globalization and liberalization also mean that the entrepreneurial trends are not only regional or national.

On the Education side: How can we best help younger people become entrepreneurial—either to prepare them for creating their own businesses, or to be entrepreneurial within existing firms, or as freelancing artists, writers, and musicians? If the traditional model of education—students sitting in straight rows of desks and all doing the same work at the same time following the directions of an authority figure—does not prepare students for entrepreneurism, then what should we replace it with?

We also live in a time of dissatisfaction with the dominant forms of education, with many complaints about stagnant or declining outcomes, bureaucratization, demoralization and worse, especially in poorer neighborhoods.

And we live in times of disruptive education technologies—from simple email and online chat to pre-packaged podcasts and video series to robust online MOOCs and more.

Putting all of the above together, how do we answer this question: What should entrepreneurial education look like?

Submissions

Please send 200-word proposals to CEE@Rockford.edu, attention Stephen Hicks and Jennifer Harrolle, by January 20, 2016.

Acceptances will be made by January 25, 2016.

This conference will be made possible in part by support from the John Templeton Foundation.