A structural equation approach and modelling of pre-service teachers'perceptives of cybersecurity education

Abstract

The increasing technology reliance in today’s world has amplified the need for cybersecurity education for all. Hence, initiatives regarding the integration of cyber- security education within the pre-college level have begun to emerge in recent times. However, limited research exists regarding in-service or pre-service teachers’ per- spectives on this phenomenon. More importantly, the need to understand pre-service teachers’ perceptions; since their perceptions may significantly influence how the prospective teachers respond to cybersecurity issues and also affect their behavior toward learning and promoting cybersecurity education in the future. Consequently, in order to gain insight into how candidates entering the teaching profession regard cybersecurity, 451 pre-service teachers were sampled in a major public university in Lesotho. The prospective teachers recruited across various departments in the fac- ulty of education responded to an online survey that comprised 33 items gauged from five constructs which include personal cybersecurity awareness, perceived self- efficacy of learning cybersecurity, personal relevance of cybersecurity knowledge, behavioral intention towards learning cybersecurity and actual learning of cyberse- curity. We analyzed the response from the survey by utilizing the structural equation modelling approach. Our findings showed that our hypothesized model was mostly accepted. The result suggests that practitioners and researchers in the related field need to raise the pre-service teacher’s behavioral intention to learn cybersecurity by helping them realize the implication for their personal lives and society. We dis- cussed our findings in relation to the proposed research model and highlighted the implication for teacher education programs. Finally, the article concludes with limi- tations and identifies future research agenda