Entrepreneurial competencies in high school agricultural education: Assessing educator perceptions, gender differences, and professional development needs

School-based agricultural educators play a critical role in building students’ entrepreneurial and employability competencies by shaping learning experiences and supervising entrepreneurship projects. However, many educators do not receive formal preparation in entrepreneurship during their training. This ex post facto quantitative study investigates agriculture educators’ perceived entrepreneurial competencies, including differences between male and female teachers, regarding the perceived importance of entrepreneurial competencies in their role. A total of 301 agricultural educators in Missouri responded to the survey. Despite limited formal entrepreneurship education, most educators agreed they possessed 11 of the 12 assessed entrepreneurship competencies. The top four entrepreneurship competencies were independence, leadership skills, opportunity assessment, and resilience, while social networking received the lowest score. These data raise questions about the possible relationship between entrepreneurial competencies and competencies needed of agricultural educators, and to what extent teaching agriculture attracts or develops entrepreneurial competencies. Researchers recommend investigating what autonomous or entrepreneurial components of agricultural education may contribute to developing educators’ entrepreneurial competencies. Researchers propose incorporating entrepreneurship training in teacher preparation programs and professional development, emphasizing social networking skills to promote their social capital and professional networks for information sharing, increasing their visibility and career growth.