A Structural Equation Approach and Modelling of Pre-service Teachers' Perspectives of Cybersecurity Education

The increasing technology reliance in today’s world has amplified the need for cybersecurity education for all. Hence, initiatives regarding the integration of cybersecurity education within the pre-college level have begun to emerge in recent times. However, limited research exists regarding in-service or pre-service teachers’ perspectives 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 faculty 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 cybersecurity. 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 discussed our findings in relation to the proposed research model and highlighted the implication for teacher education programs. Finally, the article concludes with limitations and identifies future research agenda. © The Author(s) 2023.