Diverse approaches: educator-centric insights into design thinking practices in entrepreneurship education

Purpose Design thinking (DT) has emerged in a variety of educational contexts within entrepreneurship and debate continues on the value of integrating DT into entrepreneurship education (EE). Although DT is increasingly recommended for EE practice (Baciagalupo et al., 2020), there are scarce insights into how entrepreneurship educators apply and/or integrate DT into their practice. This study uses a constructivist paradigm of education to answer questions about the educational practice when integrating DT, with a view to understanding the schema that educators construct when encouraging learners to construct their own knowledge. Design/methodology/approach This study follows a qualitative, interpretive approach, drawing upon semi-structured interviews from 29 entrepreneurship educators from higher education in the UK and Europe. Thus, this study puts focus on the quality of the DT integration in EE – from an educator’s perspective. Findings There exists a difference between the scholarly proposed integration of DT and the enacted practice within the classroom. Analysis identified four forms (selective, idea-centric, procedural and holistic) of DT integration in the context of EE, as well as insights into the practical barriers and motivations for utilizing DT. In particular, this study has identified an opportunity for appropriate training of the educators to extend their awareness of the principles of DT. Originality/value This research has identified four novel and distinct ways in which DT can be integrated with(in) EE. This allows educators to be more reflexive about why and how they utilize DT in their classrooms, addressing an apparent lack of this understanding in contemporary practice.