Making entrepreneurial families. The example of Learning Communities.

Families who working on entrepreneurship means a vision of improving as a team and giving value on a transversal education, beyond the academic field and related to all aspects of life and our promotion as people.

Education in entrepreneurship in the family generates horizontal communication between all members and work on common aims. Parents and children talking about a common project, with all partners involved and having an active profile. These characteristics of entrepreneurship education represent transformation.

From the parENTrepreneurs project we want to present an example of transformation that can explain in a deeper way what we are looking for when it comes to bringing entrepreneurship education to parents, consolidating entrepreneurship education at school: Learning communities.

Again we put the focus in a very important concept: transformation. The change that all the members of a family can see when they come into contact with creative and entrepreneurial processes is very similar to an example of change that is taking place in some educational institutions, which are working to become a project of social and cultural transformation in the centre itself and in its environment through new methodologies and the participation of all parts of the community, with the aim of achieving success in the education of children and young people.

We are going to relate the phases that an educational institutions follows to transform itself into a learning community with education based on working with the entrepreneurial competences identified in the ENTRECOMP framework:

– Awareness-raising: This is a first step that highlights the value of the decision to change. Seeing where it can lead me, what aspects will be positive and knowing everything that is involved in being a Learning Community. Also in our case, how it will improve our access to entrepreneurship education in the family. In this first phase, competences as vision, spotting opportunities, mobilising others or motivation and perseverance come into play.

– Decision making: In this phase, learning communities need to bring all participants into agreement. Everyone in the community. In the family there must be an agreement that everyone knows the process to be carried out and what involvement is needed. A common agreement. In this phase we can see competences as valuing ideas or taking the initiative.

– Dreams: Imagination Works here, and puts us in the place we would like to get through ideas, without limitations. Thanks to creativity, families and learning communities can take a picture of themselves and see what benefits the transformation they are going to make will bring. In this phase, competences such as creativity or self-awareness and self-efficacy would come into play.

– Priorities: the learning communities choose which characteristics they will finally take in order to make the transformation a reality. For this they must have information about what is important for the social context and for each participant. The entrepreneurial families would take the viable objectives so that their immersion in entrepreneurship education would lead them to achieve real and agreed objectives. We can see competencies as mobilising resources, learning through experience and coping with ambiguity, uncertainty and risk.

– Planning: Learning communities and entrepreneurial families design a roadmap to achieve their objectives. In this phase, competences as planning and management or learning through experience can be tested.

We have already travelled through the transformation phases and the learning communities decide which methodologies and characteristics they are going to acquire to improve the education of children and young people. Two of these methodologies are learning through dialogue and interactive groups. Continuing with the relationship that we are presenting, entrepreneurial families can have these methodologies as effective tools in the development of entrepreneurial competences. It is important in entrepreneurship education and working with others if we make as remarkable concept learning on common, horizontal dialogue and support between all actors.

After having carried out this analysis of learning communities, the idea of transformation that working on entrepreneurship in families will give us is much more engaging to launch our project.