ERIC Number: EJ1340033
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022
Pages: 29
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0380-2361
EISSN: EISSN-1918-5979
ME to WE Social Entrepreneurship: A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
Karsgaard, Carrie; Shultz, Lynette
Canadian Journal of Education, v45 n1 p99-127 2022
The story of the WE enterprise, also known as ME to WE or WE Charity, presents us with a cautionary tale for teachers who welcome social enterprise into schools as a way of bringing community engagement and social justice into their educational programs. Our paper is a cautionary tale that, like all such tales, opens with the statement of a warning about social entrepreneurship in schools. As the narrative unfolds, this warning is disregarded, and the violator ultimately experiences an unpleasant fate. Using the large-scale data available on Instagram, this paper reveals in detail how WE represented itself, how others perceived it, and how it worked in and with schools to achieve its corporate goals. We conclude the tale by discussing how, by delinking education from corporate interests, schools may serve equity and the public good instead of creating brand fanatics in the service of elite interests.
Descriptors: Social Change, Entrepreneurship, Social Justice, Educational Policy, School Business Relationship, Equal Education, Social Media, Corporations, Commercialization
Canadian Society for the Study of Education (CSSE). 260 Dalhousie Street Suite 204, Ottawa, ON K1N 7E4, Canada. Tel: 613-241-0018; Fax: 613-241-0019; e-mail: csse-scee@csse.ca; Web site: https://cje-rce.ca/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A