Entrepreneurship educators: a configurational analysis of factors influencing pedagogical choices

Abstract

PurposeEntrepreneurship education (EE) is critical for developing the skills of tomorrow's entrepreneurs and leaders. While significant research examines the content, student learning processes and outcomes, less studied are the entrepreneurship educators and their pedagogical preferences. Following a cognitive process model of decision-making, this study explores how self-efficacy, philosophy of teaching, entrepreneurship training and teaching experience influence entrepreneurship educator preferences to follow either a teacher-centric or a student-centric approach. This study also includes gender in a secondary analysis of the relationships.Design/methodology/approachThe data were collected from 289 entrepreneurship educators in 2021, and fuzzy-set comparative qualitative analysis (fsQCA) was used to obtain configurations of conditions (causal recipes) that lead to teacher-centric or student-centric model. A secondary analysis explores whether there are different configurations of conditions when gender is added to the analysis.FindingsThe results of our fsQCA analysis reveal multiple configurations of conditions (causal recipes) that result in a preference for either a teacher-centric or student-centric approach to teaching entrepreneurship. The authors find that teaching experience is the main condition for the teacher-centric model, while self-efficacy and entrepreneurship training are the main conditions for the pathways leading to student-centric model. The fsQCA results also show that the configurations are affected when gender is taken into account in the analysis.Originality/valueThis study, one of the first of its kind, uses a configurational approach to examine pathways that contribute to the teaching preferences of entrepreneurship educators. This paper uses self-efficacy, teaching philosophy, teaching experience and entrepreneurship training as conditions to identify multiple unique pathways that result in either a teacher-centric or student-centric pedagogical model in EE. Notably, differences by gender are also found in this study.

How does entrepreneurship education affect employability? Insights from UK higher education

“…It supports previous research highlighting the value of experiential learning (Hägg and Gabrielsson, 2020; Lackéus, 2020). Nikou et al. (2023) show that personal characteristics affect educators’ choice between teacher-centered and student-centered approaches.…”

“…The authors deliberately went beyond the educators’ perspective, which was highlighted in previous studies (e.g. Nikou et al. , 2023; Wraae and Walmsley, 2020).…”

“…The authors deliberately went beyond the educators' perspective, which was highlighted in previous studies (e.g. Nikou et al, 2023;Wraae and Walmsley, 2020). Instead, they invited professionals with different roles, among them academics, academicrelated staff, professional services and internal consultancy staff, and external experts, to capture a diversity of voices, career trajectories, and experiences.…”

Impact of teaching-learning approaches on graduates' learning outcomes: evidence in Belarus

“…In the context of a knowledge-based society teachers must be prepared and able to adopt complex and responsive approaches that focus on competencies and go beyond traditional ways of delivering content (Isusi-Fagoaga and Garc ıa-Aracil, 2020;Nikou et al, 2023). Competency-based education (CBE) focuses on outcomescompetencieswhich match workforce needs as defined by professional experts, employers and community partners.…”

The role of social start-ups in entrepreneurial behaviour: the search for efficiency

“…Ripoll es and Blesa (2023) found evidence that entrepreneurship education has learning outcomes in terms of students' undertaking of innovative actions. The involvement of educational institutions is essential for future entrepreneurs to develop a sustainable attitude (Dixit et al, 2023;Mwenda et al, 2023;Nikou et al, 2023). Solomon et al (2019) noted the growing interest in social entrepreneurship education.…”