We’ve known for a long time that entrepreneurship education isn’t just about teaching students to start companies anymore. But ever since that’s been realised, we’ve been forced to face a much bigger question: what exactly are we preparing students for?
With a background in educational psychology and almost 25 years of experience as an entrepreneurship educator, Christoph Winkler has spent much of his career thinking about that question. Along the way, he has developed an actionable framework for thinking about what entrepreneurship education can make possible for students – and the responsibility we have as educators realising that potential.
In this workshop, Christoph will share his perspective on how entrepreneurship education can move beyond traditional outcomes and help students become more active and intentional agents of change. You’ll use his framework as a starting point for reflecting on your own educational context, exchanging perspectives with other educators, and exploring how you might create opportunities for students to make a meaningful impact in their communities and beyond. Throughout the workshop, you will also have opportunities to discuss these questions directly with Christoph and learn how other educators are approaching them in their own contexts.
By the end of the workshop, you will have:
- Reflected on what entrepreneurship education can prepare students for beyond starting businesses.
- Considered the role of uncertainty, confidence, and agency in entrepreneurial learning.
- Discussed how educators can help students think more intentionally about the impact of their actions.
- Applied Christoph’s framework to your own educational context and exchanged perspectives with other educators.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Christoph Winkler is the endowed professor and founding program director of the Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Iona University, where he leads an interdisciplinary entrepreneurship programme built around experiential learning and entrepreneurial thinking across disciplines.
Over the course of his career, Christoph has become a leading voice in entrepreneurship education, both through his own teaching and research and through his work advancing the field more broadly. He is Executive Editor of Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy and was named USASBE’s 2026 Entrepreneurship Educator of the Year in recognition of his educational leadership and contributions to entrepreneurship teaching and learning. In 2025, he was also named a Justin G. Longenecker Fellow, USASBE’s highest honour.
Christoph holds a PhD in educational psychology from the City University of New York, where his work focused on self-regulated learning. His research and teaching bring together educational psychology and entrepreneurship education, with a particular interest in how learning environments can help students develop the confidence and agency to act.
Related reading: Learning Between the Lines, An Activist Turn in Entrepreneurship Education, and Measuring What Matters. For related learning, see Social Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries, and Policy Ventures: Innovation in Public Organisations.
