The Thematic Analysis of the Agricultural College Students’ Expectations from Entrepreneurship and Self-Employment Lesson: A Conceptual Foundation

This contribution was conducted to take a grab at the expectations of agricultural students from entrepreneurship and self-employment lesson (the University of Maragheh). Most of the research has taken use of quantitative methodologies to address the research problem, and therefore, a qualitative methodology gap was recognized. Using exploratory case study, initially, the research objectives and the respective protocols were determined and verbal data were collected from 38 agricultural students via convenient sampling method. The method triangulation was also used to increase the credibility of the data, which included notes, group discussions, and non-structured interviews. The heuristic units were derived from Atlas.ti (version 6.0.15), thematic analysis, code formation, classes, and communication structures –– a semantic between the inferred concepts were developed. The approaches of peer-checking and member-checking were used to confirm the accuracy of the data. The findings indicate that students’ expectations from entrepreneurial and self-employment lesson are reduced in the derived concepts, such as priority-centered, creativity, skill/pragmatism, extra-planning, communication-centered, compulsive, designing-centered, and continuous support. For future research, it is suggested that these concepts to be studied quantitatively. It is also recommended to the scholars and professors at the entrepreneurship centers of universities and higher education institutions to take into account and use the implications of the study in formulating the syllabus content of the lesson and in designing and establishing the orientation and in-service training of teaching for entrepreneurial novice professors.