Innovation in English as a foreign language: A case study exploring a program's response to change

This case study investigated educational entrepreneurship in an intensive English as a foreign language (EFL) program at a language center affiliated with a major Thai university. The case study used Webber and Scott's (2008) six-point educational entrepreneurship framework to structure data collection and analysis. In order to investigate the center's educational entrepreneurship, the study included the following research questions: 1) How does one intensive EFL program in Thailand engage in educational entrepreneurship in order to meet the changing needs of its learners? 2) What outcomes do educational leaders and teachers in the program expect as a result of their entrepreneurial activity and why do they expect those outcomes? 3) What challenges does the EFL program face in pursuing educational entrepreneurship? Using a qualitative case study approach, the study drew on data collected in interviews, a focus group, and curriculum documents to answer these questions. Following data collection, the study coded the data using In Vivo then axial coding before analyzing the themes that emerged. The major findings were as follows: the perceived changes in the students' needs were the major driver of educational entrepreneurship; educational technology facilitates educational entrepreneurship, but it can be overemphasized; internationalization is both a means and an end to educational entrepreneurship in this context; the language center does not adequately involve the community in its efforts at educational entrepreneurship; and many barriers to educational entrepreneurship can be overcome through efforts at innovation by a few highly motivated teachers.