Teaching social entrepreneurship in the foreign language classroom

Teaching Social Entrepreneurship: Business Concepts within

Cultural Contexts

Ann Abbottarabbott@illinois.edu

@AnnAbbott

Social Entrepreneurship

• The primary objective of a social enterprise is to create social value, blending social and commercial methods.

• Social enterprises generate income.• Example: Goodwill

“Spanish & Entrepreneurship: Languages, Cultures & Communities”

Book: Enterprising Nonprofits (J. Gregory Dees)Online quizzes: provide Spanish input and assess their comprehension of the concepts.Community Service Learning: engage students in real nonprofits serving Spanish-speakers.Team Projects: require students to solve real community-identified needs.Reflection: connects theory and practice.

Business concept:Generate income to create sustainability.Organization:Idealistas.org; Homegirl Café & CateringCultural Context:There is a very active “third sector” in Spain, Latin America and the US. Some, not all, use mixed financial models.

Business concept:Mission-based management guides decisions.Organization:The Refugee Center (Urbana, IL)Cultural Context:Leveraging the mission helps assess opportunities and avoid mission drift. Not all good opportunities are good for all organizations.

Business concept:Entrepreneurs manage risk, not gamble.Organization:Kiva.orgCultural Context:Assessing risks depends on a deep knowledge of local practices and perspectives, not just financial models from other cultural contexts.

Business concept:Innovation does not always mean “brand-new.”

Organization:AshokaCultural Context:Communities should be free to define their own social “challenges” as well as their solutions. Look for autochthonous solutions to locally-defined problems.

Business concept:Successful marketing requires a strong understanding of your target market.Organization:Ya ‘Stuvo (Homeboy Industries)Cultural Context:Knowing your target market means communicating in the appropriate language and register.

Business concept:Carry your branding throughout your social media marketing.Organization:Radio AmbulanteCultural Context:Successful social media marketing creates authentic, two-way interactions. Engaging with a global Spanish-speaking audience requires real transcultural competence.

Through social entrepreneurship, you can teach business languages in a way that fits both your values and your skills.

ResourcesBlog: spanishandillinois.blogspot.com

Twitter: @AnnAbbottPinterest: Ann Abbott

Email: arabbott@illinois.edu

Strategic Alignment Achievable Outcomes Partnership and/or AllianceOrganizational Benefit

[Sí / No] es una buena oportunidad por que…

Reconocer las oportunidadesAnalyze this potential income-generating activity for the Refugee Center: to change its Saturday morning tutoring program to a “multicultural immersion morning.” Is this a good opportunity for the Refugee Center?Evaluate its social value potential (Enterprising Nonprofits 53-60). OJO: a good analysis will point out both positives and negatives.

The Refugee Center currently operates a Saturday morning tutoring program for school-aged children who are refugees, asylees or immigrants (or whose parents have that status). Last year, around 100 youth were served by this program, and they represented cultures from all over the world, including Africa, Asia and Latin America. The goal of this program is to help the children with their education and socialization. In the past, field trips to other cities were a highlight for the youth, but those activities (and others) have been eliminated or reduced because of overall cuts in the Refugee Center’s funds. What if the same program was renamed “Multicultural Immersion Morning” and marketed to non-immigrant members of the community who want their children to learn with and from children who speak other languages and come from other cultures? The target market would be upper-middle class families that travel; they value foreign-language and international education, but those programs have been cut in the local public schools. Activities would still focus on helping the children with education and socialization, but in the new structure, both groups of children would teach each other about their languages and cultures. Children whose parents are clients of the Refugee Center would still pay nothing (or a nominal fee); the other children would pay a program fee with a fair market price.