Schooling entrepreneurs: Entrepreneurship, governmentality and education policy in Sweden at the turn of the millennium

Abstract

ABSTRACT Departing from Michel Foucault’s concept of governmentality, the focus of this article is the introduction of entrepreneurial education in Swedish education policy at the turn of the millennium. We analyze the various meanings attached to the concepts of “entrepreneur” and “entrepreneurship” in education policy documents, as well as the main arguments for introducing entrepreneurial education. In policy documents, the “entrepreneur” is portrayed as being flexible, creative, enterprising and independent, as having the ability to take initiative, solve problems and make decisions. Here, there is an emphasis made on economical utility, and its priority over other values. With an increasing mobilization of entrepreneurship in school, previous pedagogical and educational doctrines - focusing on equality, universalism and redistribution - are challenged. Other visions, stating other educational purposes and goals emerge. In the vision of the entrepreneurial school, it becomes logical and natural to emphasize the value education has for the economic system. In conclusion, entrepreneurial education may be seen as a particular kind of governmentality, connecting students and their subjectivity to the rationality of the market - fostering subjects in line with the imperatives of the “advances liberal society”.

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