Entrepreneurial inclinations of prospective teachers

Background: Entrepreneurship has become an emerging field of research in America, Europe and Asia. It has contributed a lot in uplifting the socioeconomic status of the countries. Well reputed International Journals are widely publishing on a variety of entrepreneurial issues. A little research in the area has so far been reported from Pakistan.

Aims: This research explored entrepreneurial inclinations of prospective teachers in Pakistan.

Sample: Multistage sampling was employed to get the replica of the population. Seven hundred master of education students (prospective teachers) were randomly selected from seven Pakistani public universities.

Method: Survey method was used to collect data from the sample. Five hundred and sixteen respondents completed the questionnaire. From factor analysis, three factors emerged: entrepreneurial intent and acceptability, entrepreneurial effort and entrepreneurial motivation. Perceptions on the conceptual variables of locus of control, self-efficacy, subjective norms,instrumental readiness and entrepreneurial intentions were also derived.

Results: The majority of prospective teachers were found to be positive towards entrepreneurship at all seven universities.

Conclusion: Most of the prospective teachers were positively inclined towards entrepreneurship. There was some impact of demographic variables such as university and course attended, parental level of education and gender. Females exhibited a higher entrepreneurial profile (in terms of working hard and entrepreneurial motivation) at most of the universities. The implications for practice and policy are discussed.