ABSTRACT
Every time we go in to teach we take a deep breath before entering the classroom and remind ourselves that one or two students in there are likely to know more about the subject than we do. This could be because of their previous experiences and knowledge, or because their gaze from the outside is sharper than ours. At times this exposure of our vulnerability is intimidating for us – we want to be “good”, knowledgeable teachers who make a real contribution. At other times we see outstanding students as a resource and a source of inspiration. Which interpretation comes more naturally depends, we think, on how secure we feel on the topic, but also on how the students function as a group – whether they are defensive and competitive, or curious and willing to share their learnings. In this chapter we will report on a course in which the latter state emerged, and we will suggest that it is precisely because of the presence of those outstanding students that we, as teachers, have the opportunity to learn and develop our courses. We will also suggest that a similar logic of seeing the encounter with others as an opportunity for development can, and should, be incorporated into the teaching of entrepreneurship – not least because entrepreneurship is often circumscribed as creative, curious and open-minded, as an activity to explore new paths or disclose “new worlds” (Spinosa et al., 1999).
