Student-Run Companies from Teachers' Perspectives
A qualitative-empirical research of a common teaching tool used in the subject of Economic Education

The empirical research is focused on student-run companies.  Such companies are a common teaching tool used in the subject of Economic Education. In the context of the Model Theory, student companies can be seen as simulations of various types of real-world economic activities and in the schools where teachers have fostered the growth of these student-run firms, the approaches they have taken have varied accordingly. This study addresses the different approaches and teaching/learning processes that teachers have taken in their use of student-run companies. The author explores the underlying beliefs that teachers have in regard to student-run companies that influence their teaching.  In the qualitative-empirical research, the teaching and learning processes the teachers have taken with student-run companies are reconstructed by using the methodologies of the narrative interview and the documentary method. The results are summarized and classified in a typology.
The research reveals the existence of different challenges in the practical application of student-run companies in the educational environment. For example, teachers often find themselves navigating inherent conflicts between the economic realities and viability of the companies and the educational objectives of their curriculum. To deal with these challenges, teachers tend to define their own orientations to student-run companies that complement or differ from the theoretical description of the teaching tool.
In addition to its contribution to the theory of student-run companies as teaching tools, the findings of this study may also be applied to the ongoing evolution of the quality of the processes and results of student-run companies.

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