Entrepreneurial Design Thinking Course at Secondary School in Nepal: Contextual Prospects and Challenges

Abstract

The glorification of entrepreneurship in Nepal has led to various stakeholders being interested in the entrepreneurship ecosystem of the country including the educational stakeholders. A surge is being observed in the number of educational institutions that now offer entrepreneurship courses to their students. However, little has been done to investigate the impact of such courses. A secondary school in Nepal used the design thinking approach strategy to conduct entrepreneurship classes for its secondary level students. This paper attempts to assess the effectiveness of the entrepreneurship classes conducted at the school by using the mixed method strategy. Our paper found that the year-long entrepreneurship course helped shift the mindset of students from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset by giving them a solution-seeking lens and the emotional engagement of the students with the course was also seen as high. Similarly, an emotional growth was also seen in the side of the educator. However, owing to the time boundaries and less support from school administration, the entrepreneurship course was not seen as successful in leading meaningful development of 21^st-century skills like collaboration, creativity, curiosity, experimentalism in students.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, design thinking, entrepreneurship education, emotional engagement

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/12-1-04

Publication date: January 31^st 2021