Pedagogy
Entrepreneurship education often lacks historical depth, but this section shows how historical inquiry can foster critical thinking, contextual understanding, and curricular reform. By engaging with the historical formation of key concepts and institutions, educators can challenge dominant narratives and cultivate reflexive learners. History thus becomes not only a topic of study, but a transformative pedagogical tool.
Introduction
Historical contributions to entrepreneurship learning and education are still rare, even though their usefulness has been recognized in many different ways. The Aspen Institute Business & Society Program, in its Charting a New Course-toolkit, actively engages in a process of marrying the liberal arts and business in coherent and robust ways, working towards a step-by-step strategy to successfully advocate for curricular change. The 73 participating schools have generated much momentum and substantial changes on campuses, several of them with an explicit focus on entrepreneurship and leadership.
Simultaneously, historical scholarship has started to engage with the value that history can provide for developing first- and second-order critical reflexivity in learners, broadening the mechanisms for successful entrepreneurship education. Other scholars have explored how fundamental concepts in entrepreneurship and management studies first came to be, and used insights from this history to reflect critically on their application. A special issue in Academy of Management Learning and Education calls on scholars to rethink the business school of the future based on historical analysis of its past.
Key References
Tennent, K. D., Gillett, A. G., & Foster, W. M. 2019. Developing Historical Consciousness in Management Learners. Management Learning, 51(1): 73-88.
Explores how historical thinking can cultivate critical reflection in management education. Advocates for embedding historical consciousness into curricula to deepen learners’ understanding of context and change.
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McLaren, P. G., Bridgman, T., Cummings, S., Lubinski, C., O’Connor, E., Spender, J.-C., & Durepos, G. 2021. New Times, New Histories of the Business School. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 20(3): 293-299.
Introduces a special issue calling for new historical perspectives on the business school. Highlights how critical histories can inform debates about the purpose and future of management education.
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Bridgman, T., Cummings, S., & Ballard, J. 2019. Who Built Maslow’s Pyramid? A History of the Creation of Management Studies’ Most Famous Symbol and Its Implications for Management Education. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 18(1): 81-98.
Traces the origins of Maslow’s pyramid to critique its widespread use in management teaching. Demonstrates how historical inquiry can challenge oversimplified models and promote deeper critical engagement.
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Wadhwani, R. D., & Viebig, C. 2021. Social Imaginaries of Entrepreneurship Education: The United States and Germany, 1800-2020. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 20(3): 342-360.
Offers a comparative history of entrepreneurship education in the U.S. and Germany. Shows how national imaginaries shape what entrepreneurship means and how it is taught.
Passant, A. 2024. From Bookkeepers to Entrepreneurs: A Historical Perspective on the Entrepreneurial Diversification of a French Business School Over 200 Years, Management & Organizational History, 19:1: 1-33.
Analyzes the long-term evolution of a French business school’s curriculum. Reveals how historical shifts in educational identity reflect broader transformations in entrepreneurship discourse.
Passant, A. 2016. Issues in European Business Education in the Mid-Nineteenth Century: A Comparative Perspective, Business History, 58:7: 1118-1145.
Investigates early European business schools to highlight foundational differences in educational missions. Offers insight into how historical context shaped business education models still influential today.
Khurana, R. 2007. From Higher Aims to Hired Hands: The Social Transformation of American Business Schools and the Unfulfilled Promise of Management as a Profession. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
A landmark study tracing the evolution of American business schools. Critiques the shift from civic-minded professional training to market-driven models of management education.
Lubinski, C., Giacomin, V. and Wadhwani, R.D. 2020. Module Note: Historical Entrepreneurship, Harvard Business School Case SCG872-PDF-ENG, https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/SCG872-PDF-ENG, and accompanying historical teaching case studies.
A teaching resource designed to introduce students to historical approaches in entrepreneurship. Accompanied by case studies that model how to engage with entrepreneurship historically and critically.