Teacherpreneurs must embrace the edventure of their own careers and not feel guilty. Here are five reasons why.
1. Timelessness
First, it’s understood that trends and their associated labels, such as “teacherpreneurship” and “edupreneurship” come and go, but what these terms mean has always been a part of the occupation. As one of civilization’s oldest professions, teaching has always had a keen focus on the edventure, the heroic everyman/woman saga of meeting life’s challenges head-on and learning to overcome them in new ways. Take a look at the biography of Aristotle, one of human civilization’s greatest teachers for an example of how long edupreneurs have been around.
More recently, as Teach for America’s Nihal ElRayess stated in her EdSurge post, “What It Takes to Be a Teacherpreneur,” (4 October 2012), entrepreneurs have six main characteristics that also describe educators. They are:
1. Visionary
2. Passionate
3. Creative
4. Empathetic
5. Persistent
6. Fundraiser
I concur with her comments that the stereotype of the teacher as rigid conformist to rules, regulations, and schedules is humoros for anyone who has actually held a position in the field. How often have we had to provide a creative vision for a struggling student or school with passion, persistence, and empathy? I can’t count the number of grants I’ve written, equipment I’ve begged and bartered for, or the boxes of candy I’ve sold.
Teacherpreneurship is a timeless characteristic of who we educators really are.
2. Transformation
Although educators have always been dedicated innovators working for student success, times change. In the ancient world, the Peripatetic teaching method (walking around with students) was all the rage. Today we would laugh if a teacher considered that a remarkable innovation. Clearly, the context of teaching has evolved, especially over the last decade, just as the landscape of education has changed. Consider the rapid growth and options of e-learning over the last decade within the context of the war on academia over such issues as gainful employment, student loans, and teacher evaluations (c.f. Silverstein, M. America’s War on Education. The Moderate Voice. 2 June 2012).
Within this ever-changing, dynamic environment, we educators work hard to help students learn, grow, and succeed, not only in school but beyond into their future careers and roles in our global society. Why wouldn’t we do the same for ourselves? In fact, educators are required and expected to complete a certain amount of professional development hours and activities each year so that they can achieve the goal of helping students transform their lives. Educators must take part in writing/publishing, presenting, research, and other such activities to stay current in their fields. Better still, they must stay on the cutting edge of trends and innovations in their respective professions.
Why then would we expect faculty to remain stagnant? Teacherpreneurs must not feel guilty because they themselves model the transformative role academics plays in our lives.
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