Emancipatory entrepreneurship education through critical pedagogy : Employing Paulo Freire's pedagogical model in the South African townships context

: Felix-Faure, Charlotte; Fayolle, Alain

: Politis, Diamanto; Aaboen, Lise; Gabrielsson, Jonas

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

: 2025

: Handbook of Research on Entrepreneurial Learning

: Research Handbooks in Business and Management series

: 252

: 264

: 978-1-80392-220-1

: 978-1-80392-221-8

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781803922218.00026

: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781803922218.00026

Entrepreneurship education plays a significant role in fostering entrepreneurship, which has gained significant importance in the eyes of policymakers and the population at large for economic development and job creation. However, entrepreneurship education is often founded on dominant Western ideologies, which are often intended to fashion learners in a certain way. It therefore becomes necessary to adopt a critical stance in its development and practice, especially within emerging country contexts where there is a history of colonization or apartheid. This chapter examines how Paulo Freire's educational model, in which the learner is an active and equal partner in the learning process, may be employed to develop an emancipatory entrepreneurship education model for the South African township context, to help counter the effects of apartheid and oppression.