Documentary analysis of primary education curricula for the development of entrepreneurship: competences and active methodologies

Abstract

Entrepreneurial competence is a key competence for personal development, social inclusion and active citizenship. It is important that primary school teachers develop this competence and that it is therefore included in the initial training of future teachers provided by universities. The objective of this research is to sanalyse the competences and teaching methodologies of Primary Education degrees in Spain in order to determine the extent to which entrepreneurship is included in their curricula. For this purpose, a documentary and content analysis has been carried out of the 68 curricula that were entered into the Spanish Registry of Universities, Centres and Degrees for the academic year 2021-22. A total of 6262 competences and 655 methodologies were examined. The results indicate that 33.82% of the faculties include entrepreneurial competence either as a general or a transversal competence, relating it to entrepreneurial culture, entrepreneurial spirit and project design. The most common methodologies used in these university programmes are tutorials, lectures, teamwork, debates and case studies. Since entrepreneurial competence involves a subset of attitudes, aptitudes and skills, 909 competences in the curricula were found to be linked to entrepreneurial competence, notably including planning, innovation, oral and written communication, and problem solving. However, skills such as financial and economic literacy, mobilising resources, self-awareness and self-efficacy, vision, valuing ideas, and ethical and sustainable thinking were not covered in the curricula analysed.