Reaction and engagement: An ethnographic study of student participation in entrepreneurship classrooms in Oman

Oman has introduced mandatory entrepreneurship education (EE) alongside educational reforms aimed at introducing more progressive pedagogy within higher education, seeking to develop students’ practical skills and competencies. However, the implementation of both entrepreneurship and progressive education has been identified as facing challenges in the classroom, leading to calls for research to examine and assess teaching and learning within the Omani EE classroom. This study aims to understand and analyze how students engage and react to different EE pedagogies. By combining ethnographic data collection with follow-up interviews, this research captures nuanced classroom interactions and student reactions to different pedagogic activities, offering a micro-level perspective on engagement that remains underexplored in existing research. The study was conducted at a public University in Oman, through the observation of 53 students divided into two online classes, which lasted for 10 weeks. The observation was supplemented with 11 interviews conducted with students in both classes at the end of the semester. The research found that lectures were useful in supporting limited active participation, case studies were helpful in engaging and immersing students, presentations supported the development of student’s self-belief and students reacted adversely to completing business plans. These findings highlight that in the context of Oman, lectures can offer a valuable way of starting to engage with entrepreneurship and the transition to more progressive pedagogy needs to be more gradual. The negative reaction to business plans might suggest a need to offer more preparation and development of entrepreneurial skills before their introduction.