BUSINESS EDUCATORS' COMPETENCIES AS CORRELATE OF BUSINESS EDUCATION STUDENTS' ENTREPRENEURSHIP INTENTIONS IN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN SOUTH EAST, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study investigated business educators' pedagogical and information and communication technology (ICT) competencies as correlates of business education students' entrepreneurship intentions in public universities in South East, Nigeria. The persistent rise in graduate unemployment among business education graduates in the region, despite the entrepreneurship orientation of the programme, motivated the inquiry. Two research questions and two corresponding hypotheses tested at the 0.05 level of significance guided the study. The correlational survey research design was adopted. The population of the study comprised 113 business educators drawn from seven public universities offering business education programmes in the five states of the South East geopolitical zone. The entire population was studied through the census method as the population was considered manageable. Data were collected using two researcher-developed instruments: The Business Educators' Competencies Questionnaire (BECQ) and the Entrepreneurship Intention Questionnaire (EIQ). The instruments were validated by three experts and their reliability was established through a trial test using Cronbach Alpha, yielding coefficient values of 0.82 and 0.84 for the pedagogical and ICT competence clusters of BECQ, with an overall coefficient of 0.82, and 0.79 for the EIQ. Out of 113 copies of the questionnaire administered, 94 copies were retrieved and used for analysis. Pearson Product Moment Correlation was used to answer the research questions and test the hypotheses. The findings revealed a very high positive and significant relationship between business educators' pedagogical competence and business education students' entrepreneurship intentions (r = 0.828, p < 0.05) and a high positive and significant relationship between business educators' ICT competence and business education students' entrepreneurship intentions (r = 0.714, p < 0.05). The study concluded that business educators' pedagogical and ICT competencies are important correlates of business education students' entrepreneurship intentions in public universities in South East, Nigeria. It was recommended, among others, that university administrators and education authorities should organise regular professional development programmes targeted at strengthening business educators' pedagogical and ICT competencies, and that government and university management should provide adequate ICT infrastructure to support effective entrepreneurship teaching and learning.