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The worldwide need and request for a workforce equipped with thorough high qualitativeknowledge but also a capability to use it in complex situations, has become the entrance ticketfor entrepreneurial skills entering the Swedish compulsory education. Thus, schools play an important role providing a space for individuals practicing these skills, being for instance able to see opportunities and make something from them, being initiative, self-confident, risktaking, creative and problem solving. With the aim to increase the knowledge of how entrepreneurial skills unfolds as part of the education at earlier ages, this mainly qualitative study follows a novel attempt to build a common thread of entrepreneurial skills from preschool to grade nine, in a small mid-Swedish municipality during 2018. Focusing on initial challenges, the findings show the teachers struggle with both content, methods and progression. Related to the curricula’s formulation arena, there is a discrepancy between this and the teachers’ transformation and realisation arena. This suggests theydo not always do what the curricula stipulate or they themselves classify as most important,they generally seem to struggle to link their subjects to entrepreneurial skills and there is a lack of progression between grades and in transitions between school levels.

Questions we care about (Objectives)

The worldwide request for a workforce equipped with thorough high qualitative knowledge as well as a capability to use it in complex situations, has become the entrance ticket for entrepreneurial skills entering the curricula of Swedish compulsory education. Thus, schools play an important role providing a space for individuals practicing these skills, for instance being initiative, self-confident, risk-taking, creative and problem solving. With the aim to increase the knowledge of how entrepreneurial skills unfolds as part of the compulsory education at earlier ages, the research question in focus is ‘What are the initial challenges building a common thread of entrepreneurial skills in education?’

Approach

The mainly qualitative case study underpinning this paper follows a novel attempt to build the common thread of entrepreneurship in education in a small mid-Swedish municipality, from preschool to grade nine between February and November 2018. The empirical material includes meetings, written inquiries as well as six workshops with preschool teachers, teachers and school managers. Here, addressing what the teachers knew about entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial skills; which of the skills they thought will be of most importance to the pupils in their future and what the teachers claim they focus the most on within their teaching, how they do it and make this work visible for the pupils.

Results

Focusing on initial challenges, the findings show the teachers struggle with both content, methods and progression. Related to the curricula’s formulation arena, there is a discrepancy between this and the teachers’ transformation and realisation arena. This suggests they do not always do what the curricula stipulate or they themselves classify as most important, they seem to struggle to link their subjects to entrepreneurial skills and there is a lack of progression between grades and in transitions between school levels.

Implications

The insights are useful for researchers from both entrepreneurship and education. The research adds to curriculum theory by providing an empirical study investigating the theory in practice. Further, to the research field of entrepreneurship, since addressing a growing field focusing on entrepreneurial skills in compulsory education, and engaging in issues, levels of education and contexts suggested neglected. The results are also of interest for practitioners.

Value/Originality

The research of enterprise learning is still in its early stages (Fayolle, 2013; Leffler, 2014) and existing research primarily focus on higher education (Byrne et al., 2014). Therefore, the attempt to build a common thread of entrepreneurship, focusing on entrepreneurial skills throughout an educational system from preschool to elementary school in a municipality, which in is itself is a novelty, can provide important insights for both practice and research.