HOW CAN TRADITIONAL CONTINUING EDUCATION ACTIVITIES LIKE CONFERENCES, WORKSHOPS, SEMINARS, AND OTHER ENHANCE ONLINE TEACHERPRENEURSHIP?

This paper contributes to the research on teacherpreneurship as an evolving form of entrepreneurship, and conceptualizes it as a value-adding process by teachers within the context of the education industry which leads to innovative or imitative education solutions and experiences. Within the field of teacherpreneurship online Teacherpreneurship is a new phenomenon that is yet to be largely addressed in educational scholarship. Online teacherpreneurs are teachers who act in entrepreneurial ways, sharing teaching ideas and resources online via blogs, social media, and virtual marketplaces, often for financial gain. Nevertheless many teachers visit conferences, workshops and seminars and other traditional continuing education activities and therefore the question emerges: How can traditional continuing teacher education enhance two Entrepreneurial sub-processes which are discovery and exploitation of opportunities? A qualitative survey with in-depth-interviews of a sample of 9 high school teachers in Austria was conducted which yielded results in three areas. First, traditional continuing education facilitates the discovery process of coming up with ideas for business development as they can be discussed with peers in terms of a “teacherpreneurship think tank”. Second, the interviews showed that aspiring entrepreneurs do not search randomly for ideas but often draw from prior knowledge, drive and expertise, and knowledge as part of it was built through continuing education activities like seminars. Finally, regarding the exploitation the concept of effectuation within Entrepreneurship by Sarasvathy (2001) is highly relevant with regard to traditional continuing education. Participants like effectual entrepreneurs build up networks at conferences, establish trust in seminar groups and take resources as starting point to build up their ideas. Afterwards they manage to use these networks in building up a community (e.g. on Twitter or other Social Media) and integrate peers in their Online Teacherpreneurship activities.