Social Work and Social Entrepreneurship: MSW Student Attitudes
While growing numbers of students in business and management graduate programs are studying social entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility, social entrepreneurship may be less familiar to MSW students. Social work schools could be a source of broader social values and attract social entrepreneurs with education that helps social entrepreneurs improve their skills for grant development, advocacy, and evaluation (Ashley, 2009). This study investigates: 1) how social work students view social entrepreneurship based on their experience and knowledge, and 2) what social work students expect from social entrepreneurship development in social work programs.
Method
An online survey tool was used to collect data for this study. Ten questions including Likert and open-ended questions were asked to explore social work students’ awareness, academic experience, and expectation about social entrepreneurship. Social work students (N = 120) from two large MSW programs in the Midwest participated in the survey. Among the survey participants, 41% had more than 3 years of work experience, and 21% had supervisory or mid-management responsibility in their previous positions. Lastly, 22% identified their area of MSW specialization or concentration as social entrepreneurship.
Results
Approximately 57% of participants expressed a low familiarity with the subject of social entrepreneurship. Despite this, almost half of participants (46%) said an MSW degree would be helpful for those who want to be a successful social entrepreneur. Moreover, 84% expressed their ongoing interest in social entrepreneurship. Among those who had taken social entrepreneurship classes, 61% shared positive feedback, while 18% were not satisfied because of structural issues including limited resources and limited capability of instructors. Students who have taken social entrepreneurship classes were more likely to express interest in social entrepreneurship activities after graduation compared to those who have not. MSW students who rated themselves as having average or higher familiarity with social entrepreneurship were more likely to have future plans to engage in or research social entrepreneurship, χ2 (2, N = 120) = 8.975, p <.01.
Conclusion and Implications
These findings suggest that in this sample, many MSW students were interested in social entrepreneurship, especially among MSW students with previous managerial work experience, but that simply being familiar with social entrepreneurship theories and concepts was a statistically significant difference between MSW students who had future plans to engage in or study social entrepreneurship and those who did not. Furthermore, relatively large numbers of students in this sample (39%) who had taken social entrepreneurship courses in their MSW programs did not share positive feedback about their experiences, suggesting room for pedagogical improvement. Limitations of this study include small sample size and relatively few statistically significant findings. Future research should investigate with larger empirical samples how social work programs and faculty teach social entrepreneurship in ways that are meaningful to MSW students and extend understanding of social entrepreneurship theories and concepts in ways that influence the social work profession.
Reference
Ashley, S. R. (2009). Innovation diffusion: Implications for evaluation. New Directions for Evaluation, 2009 (124), 35-45. doi:10.1002/ev.312