Situating Imposter Syndrome In The Experience Of Becoming and Being An Entrepreneurship Educator

The proliferation of entrepreneurship education in higher education has heightened the demand for individuals with entrepreneurial acumen to teach this subject across diverse academic disciplines. Moreover, while many entrepreneurship educators follow a serendipitous entry into the field, a discourse about how such diverse cohorts of entrepreneurship educators experience their professional becoming and being remains limited. As an extension of a broader investigation into the competence development of entrepreneurship educators, this study explores their transition into their role. Nineteen graphic-mediated interviews were conducted with entrepreneurship educators from eleven public universities across England, exploring their lived experiences within higher education. Our findings underscore imposterism as a prevalent and formative aspect of becoming an entrepreneurship educator in higher education. We pinpoint specific incidents that serve as triggers for imposterism and elucidate professional development opportunities considered most effective for assisting entrepreneurship educators in coping with imposterism. The novelty of the current study is derived from the extension of the literature on imposterism into the nuanced context of the lived experiences of entrepreneurship educators in higher education. We position our research as important for scholars intrigued by the profiles and perspectives of entrepreneurship educators, as well as for academic developers tasked with the professional advancement of a diverse cohort of entrepreneurship educators.