US community college entrepreneurship educator practices

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to descriptively characterize the demographic profiles of entrepreneurship educators (EE) in US community colleges, and include descriptive and inferential examination of their pedagogical modalities, attitudes toward online modality, and use of teaching materials, tools and techniques, with resulting impacts and outcomes on students. This paper analyzed data collected by the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship on the national landscape of community college entrepreneurship education. The useable sample included 568 responding participants from 270 US community colleges, all of whom self-identified as faculty members who teach entrepreneurship. To enhance the understanding of the findings, a small panel of EE experts was solicited to offer perspective and future study suggestions. Ten distinct findings are offered. These include EE teaching materials, teaching modalities, use of e-learning and alternative techniques, and their relation to modalities; and examination of five distinct entrepreneurial educational outcomes and their relationship to educator use of pedagogical materials, tools and techniques. Understanding effective entrepreneurship educational practices is important to globally advancing entrepreneurship education. This paper concentrates on the profiles and practices of educators in the significant but under-researched domain of US community colleges, and offers an incremental contribution and awareness of effective entrepreneurship education teaching methods.