Exploring Lived Experiences of Selected Educational Entrepreneurs in and around Harare during the COVID 19 Pandemic

Abstract

The aim of this research is to explore lived experiences of education entrepreneurs during the Covid 19 pandemic. An interpretive phenomenological study was carried out on eight purposively selected educational entrepreneurs from Harare Urban and Harare peri-Urban in order to study their lived experiences through the Covid 19 Pandemic. Semi- structured interviews were used to collect data from the 8 research participants. Data collected was coded and placed into clusters according to similarities. Similar clusters were merged into 5 themes. These 5 themes summarized the lessons learnt through the lived experiences of the research participants. Although the Covid 19 pandemic has caused negative impacts globally, the reports from the lived experiences indicate that there were several positive aspects that emerged from this pandemic. Such positive outcomes include opening business opportunities for educational entrepreneurs, job creation, professional development and development of resilience. The study recommends that since the Covid 19 Pandemic is unique and has an evolving nature, educational entrepreneurs should shift their focus from simply mitigating and focus on proactively developing entrepreneurial innovativeness and adaptability skills in order to cope with a future that is inherently unpredictable. This may bolster their confidence so as to be ready to respond assertively as well as flexibly in the face of such a phenomenon in order to cope with the challenges posed and come out of it with resilience.