Understanding teacher entrepreneurship in the globalized society: Some lessons from self-starter Israeli school teachers in road safety education

Abstract

Purpose

Social entrepreneurship aims at creating social value for the public good rather than personal wealth or private gain as in the case of commercial entrepreneurship. The purpose of this study was to explore the entrepreneurial activities of self-starter teachers and analyze the factors that facilitate or inhibit the appearance of these activities using the concept of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) that are neither part of the formal reward system nor a part of an employee's mandatory job description.

Design/methodology/approach

Semi-structured interviews with 30 teachers and ten principals from the Israeli elementary and secondary educational system.

Findings

It was found that self-starter teachers engage in simple forms of innovative work behaviors (e.g. developing new curricula and teaching methods, initiating and implementing new projects, including school events). Additionally, the teacher's decision to go the extra-mile and initiate new projects or devise new curricula is related, though, to four major determinants, two of them external (e.g. the principal, the local education authority) and two internal (personal experiences, educational calling and emotional commitment).

Originality/value

The paper sheds light on educational entrepreneurship through the concept of OCB.

Citation

Oplatka, I. (2014), "Understanding teacher entrepreneurship in the globalized society: Some lessons from self-starter Israeli school teachers in road safety education", Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, Vol. 8 No. 1, pp. 20-33. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEC-06-2013-0016