Enterprise Educator

The fourth artefact for my reflective blog is a critical incident. In March 2020, the UK went into lockdown as a result of the global coronavirus pandemic. This obviously has had an impact on all areas of everyone's lives, but for me, it has changed my job, my research and my future plans for my EdD thesis. My educator role has moved entirely online since March and is likely to stay remote until at least September. This has changed the way I teach, support students and interact with colleagues. Additionally, the outreach work that I deliver in schools has been suspended as schools have been closed and even when they reopen in September, it is less likely that external visitors will be permitted due to COVID safe measures put in place by the schools.  This has led me to rethink how I will be able to conduct my research, as my original plan was to research in the classrooms, both in schools and in my own classrooms at the university. Intervention packages to support future women in b

In November 2019, I saw a call for applications for speakers for TEDxWolverhampton 2020. The theme of the event was CTRL-ALT-DEL and applicants could choose to deliver a talk which fell under a theme of Control, Alternatives or Deletion. It has been a bucket list item of mine for a few years to deliver a TED talk, and I felt this could now be my opportunity! I sent in my application and had to go through a series of rounds, before I finally found out in January 2020 that I had been selected as one of the 12 speakers for the event. I decided to base my talk on the theme of Alternatives, as my EdD research is examining alternative approaches to enterprise education.  I went along to the speakers meeting in January and met the other speakers and organisers of the event, and realised that most of the other speakers were just as nervous about the experience as I was, but also really excited to be part of the event. Tickets went on sale and I was embargoed from revealing I was on the line up

In our October class for the EdD, we were asked to choose a photograph that summed up how we were feeling at that point within our journey. Apart from the welcome session in September, this was our first session on the programme. We were still getting to know each other and our way around the campus and the programme itself. I chose this picture of graffiti: The reason for choosing this photo was it was a visual representation of how I was feeling at that point on my EdD journey. It is chaotic, misunderstood and subjective, however it is a tag which in graffiti is used to identify the artist and it features the word respect, which is something I have for my fellow EdD students, who are also embarking on this unknown adventure along with me.  This image also represents my feelings towards the school children on my outreach visits to schools, as it represents youth culture, exploring identity and a generational and often cultural divide between students and us as educators. This is somet

My first artefact is the government policy paper published in 2019 by Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship.  You can read the review and the government response here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-alison-rose-review-of-female-entrepreneurship This paper was published in March 2019 and was the key driver behind my reasons to apply to study the EdD (Doctorate of Education) along with my experiences in school classrooms, during my outreach work, in which I noticed that the gender divide of school children wanting to study business related subjects in further or higher education. From my experience of going out to schools and in the university that I work in, there are many more boys/men choosing to study business than women and after reading the Rose Review, it confirmed my experiences that the structures in the UK for support for women wanting to start and run businesses are imbalanced in favour of men also.  I want to research whether the type and amount of ent

Hi and welcome to Enterprise Educator, my blog documenting my doctoral journey as an enterprise educator. I will be using this blog to document key moments throughout my journey towards becoming a Doctor of Education. I started my doctorate in September 2019 part-time alongside a full time career in Higher Education. This blog will form a part of my assessed reflective portfolio and act as a diary of sorts, to reflect, record and react to key artefacts and events throughout my journey. Please feel free to leave me comments, ask me questions and share your own experiences along the way. Lisa