When I heard the word entrepreneur, the field of education was quite possibly the last thing that entered into my mind. To me, an entrepreneur was always someone who created a new business against a great deal of resistance from outside forces. Think Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook or Steve Jobs and Apple. I never before thought of classroom teachers as entrepreneurs. However, I realized today that teachers are entrepreneurs in every sense of the word thanks to the research presentation held by AEI entitled “The State of Entrepreneurship in K-12 Education.” Teachers work in a variety of ways to ensure that every student who enters their classroom leaves as something more than they were. The goal of every teacher is for students to leave their class more enriched and engaged than they were when they entered.
I would argue that teachers want innovation in their classrooms beyond just an iPad or laptop given to every student. Teachers need more support than that. On one hand, technology can provide that innovation if it is made in a way that supports both the teacher and the student. However, when teachers are unable to access this technology because of slow broadband, limited/no Wi-Fi or impossible to remember passwords, the technology becomes more of a head wind than a tail wind, to use the analogy that was repeated throughout the conference. Tail winds are things that create more “smooth sailing” for teachers, whereas head winds are the issues they are coming up against. For example, school choice can be seen as a tailwind because parents and students are finally able to make their own choices about where they want to attend school. On the other hand, one head wind can be the restrictions currently being placed on teachers that prevent them from having full autonomy over their classrooms and therefore limiting their ability to experiment with new ways of teaching.
The innovations happening in schools today are only the beginning. Parents have more choice than ever before to get their children the best possible education they can. The responsibility now lies on the next generation of teachers and teacher preparation programs. These programs hold the ability to change the way teachers are educated and in turn, change the face of the education system across the nation. In a dream world, for example, every teacher prep program would educate their students on how to find the best apps to provide them with the best resources in their subject field. These teachers would then be able to apply these skills that they’re constantly learning and re-learning to have the greatest impact on their students. It is the next generation of educators who can have the greatest influence on the next generation of students.
Ciara O’Sullivan, CER Intern