Teachers’ Perceptions of and Suggestions for Embedding Entrepreneurship in Technology Education

Abstract

Entrepreneurship education is critical to many countries' efforts to ameliorate youth unemployment. Embedding entrepreneurship content or skills into school subjects can contribute to these efforts. Although youth unemployment is especially rife in South Africa, its school curriculum does not include extensive entrepreneurship education. For these reasons, researchers have been investigating and proposing various ways to develop and expand entrepreneurship in the school curriculum. Previous studies have explored if and how entrepreneurship could potentially be purposely embedded in the South African Senior Phase Technology curriculum, finding positive potential for such an endeavour. Still, most studies have only explored the intended curriculum without considering their implementation in the enacted curriculum. Technology teachers' voices--the enactors of the intended curriculum--were therefore overlooked. The current study explored the perceptions of experienced Technology teachers regarding the feasibility of embedding entrepreneurship education in the existing Senior Phase Technology curriculum. Technology teachers were invited to make practical suggestions for merging entrepreneurship into the Technology curriculum. A qualitative phenomenological strategy of inquiry was used. Purposive sampling resulted in 30 experienced Technology Education teachers from the North West province completing a questionnaire. Data were analysed thematically and several interesting findings emerged. Technology teachers were overwhelmingly supportive of embedding entrepreneurship in this subject, offering numerous practical and feasible suggestions in this regard. These suggestions could be used to strengthen the intended and enacted Technology curriculum in South Africa by making the learning therein more meaningful and life-relevant for learners.