Investigating integration of entrepreneurship education into teacher education curriculum framework in Zambia

Abstract

This research focused on investigating how entrepreneurship education (EE) was integrated in Zambia's teacher education (TE) curriculum framework. Simply put, the study investigated the aspects of leadership used by Zambian TE institutions (TEIs) to implement and oversee the 2013 policy framework for the curriculum for EE. A descriptive research design and mixedmethods research were both used to achieve the study's goals. This study argues that teaching of EE can promote sustainable development by developing students' leadership, entrepreneurial and opportunity-seeking mindsets in the corporate, social, civic, and technology spheres, thereby reshaping society. In Zambia's universities and teacher colleges of education, the systematic implementation, management, and integration of entrepreneurial education into the curricular framework for TE were found to be inconsistent. According to the poor results of the competency test, trainee teachers had a poor conceptualisation of EE in TE. The basic theoretical and practical pedagogical foundations of EE were found to be poorly understood by EE educators. The study offers policymakers and practitioners in teacher education insight into how to create policies, programmes, and leadership that support the growth of entrepreneurship and increased innovation through the development of human capital and the most effective use of the opportunity-based approach. I therefore, concluded that EE courses should be integrated into all teacher training programmes to produce active industrious teachers and educators who will then produce entrepreneurial learners and citizens for active citizenship and selfsustaining development at all levels of education.