The Relationship between Teachers’ Technology Integration and Entrepreneurial Intention

Abstract

Abstract In order to embrace the character of 21st century classrooms, teachers should model critical thinking, design thinking, and ultimately entrepreneurial thinking for students. Teachers who effectively integrate digital tools into their instructional practices at higher levels of technology integration not only promote this type of thinking but also become role models as entrepreneurial thinkers. Lambert and Cuper (2008) establish that more professional development is needed to prepare practicing teachers as well as pre-service teacher candidates to modernize their practice, to integrate digital tools at higher levels for their teaching activities, and to quantify their own learning. This practice makes teachers more entrepreneurial in mindset and practice. Icek Ajzen (1991) in accordance with his Theory of Planned Behavior, contends that entrepreneurial actions are intentional, and several other researchers have included this concept when analyzing the characteristics of an entrepreneur. Accordingly, with the fairly new development of the term, “teacherpreneur”, there is a prominent focus on teachers and their influence in entrepreneurial practice (Berry, 2013). Study participants were preK-12 teachers with a mean age of 46.7 years. The 43 male and 168 female participants, ranging in experience and their teaching level, responded to a four-part Likert scale survey. The survey included items adapted from Magana’s (2017) T3 Technology Integration Framework, items listed as agreed-upon entrepreneurial characteristics, items adapted from Liñán and Chen’s (2006) Entrepreneurial Intention Questionnaire, and demographic items teaching level, years of experience, gender, and age. A significant relationship was found between overall technology integration and entrepreneurial characteristics and intention (F (4,202) =14.86, p=<.01). Entrepreneurial characteristics and intention were also significantly related to the translational (F (4,202) =3.63, p=.01), transformational (F (4,202) =15.73, p=<.01), and transcendent (F (4,202) =23.68, p=<.01) levels of technology integration. Neither overall technology integration (F (5,203) =1.11, p=.36) nor overall entrepreneurial characteristics and intention (F (5,204)=0.11, p=.99) had a significant relationship to demographics. The findings confirm a relationship between levels of technology integration and entrepreneurial characteristics and entrepreneurial intention. The study demonstrates the necessity to include more professional development concerning higher-level use of technology to develop teaching practices that model entrepreneurial thinking for students.