The National Research Council's (NRC) Report (1988), Understanding Agriculture: New Directions for Education, called on secondary agricultural education to shift its scope and purpose, including students' supervised agricultural experiences (SAEs). The NRC asserted that this shift should create opportunities for students to acquire supervised…

Career and technical education courses, such as agricultural education, exist, in part, to assist students in acquiring the competencies needed to achieve employability. However, whether the current secondary agricultural education curriculum meets the needs of industry leaders who employ high school graduates of agricultural education programs is…

Research has shown that agricultural education graduates are hesitant to enter the profession and seemingly quick to leave, often citing long work hours as a main contributing factor. As the shortage of agricultural teachers continues, there is concern over the balance of career and family and its effect on the profession. The purpose of this…

Volunteers can be an important resource of many nonprofit organizations. The ability to meet the mission, goals and objectives of nonprofit organizations often depends upon the effectiveness of volunteer involvement in direct service delivery or indirect program support. Volunteer involvement utilizes financial and non-financial resources of an…

The purpose of this study was to examine changes in teacher self-efficacy from the student teaching experience to the third year of teaching. The population was the entire cohort of student teachers from The Ohio State University. Of the 34 individuals who student taught, 17 entered the teaching profession. The researchers utilized the Teachers…

This study analyzed Texas secondary agricultural education teachers' (n = 232) attitudes toward diversity inclusion in Texas secondary agricultural education programs. Using a web-based questionnaire, the researcher employed a nonproportional stratified random sampling technique. Researchers used descriptive statistics to report demographic and…

Modern agriculture poses ecological problems and opportunities, which defy simple democratic reform without an educated citizenry. Developing an educated citizenry can be accomplished by further developing agricultural literacy in elementary education. While benchmarks for agricultural literacy have been produced, relatively little attention has…

The purpose of this study was to describe beginning agriculture teachers' perceived agricultural education teacher self-efficacy. Additionally, the researcher sought to describe the relationship among teachers' demographic characteristics and their agricultural education teacher self-efficacy. An instrument specific to agricultural education was…

The purpose of this study was to assess the perceptions of ATS instructors in Egypt related to implementing experiential learning in the form of internships. In July 2007, 90 ATS instructors attended workshops focused on conducting internship experiences. Self-perceived competency of ATS instructors to implement internships was assessed…

Academic program rankings are highly anticipated by many university administrators, faculty, and alumni. This study analyzed the perceptions of agricultural education departmental contact persons to identify esteemed post-secondary agricultural education programs and the distinguishing characteristics of each program. The ten most distinguished…

With increased budget cuts and a shortage of funding sources, Cooperative Extension must have a reliable group of proficient volunteers to carry-out organizational goals. Developing an understanding of volunteer abilities will assist extension agents in preparing and utilizing volunteers. Self-efficacy theory provided the theoretical framework of…

The purpose of this research was to investigate collaboration between agricultural science teachers and Extension agents in Texas from the perspective of successful collaboration. Programs, leaders, and participants in both agricultural education and Extension can be impacted positively through collaboration. However, successful collaboration…

Historically, planning and delivery of professional development for public school teachers was centralized in state departments of education and universities, with teachers having little input or control over the content. For many years the literature in adult and continuing education has reflected an emphasis on learner participation in program…

This phenomenological study of early career agriculture teachers sought to determine the meaning early career agriculture teachers ascribe to their time. Seven teachers with a range of experience from mid-first year to beginning of sixth year were chosen. Interviews were used to make meaning of their time. Five themes were found in the…

The purpose of this study was to compare and contrast an academic extension education model with an Extension human resource management model. The academic model of 19 competencies was similar across the 22 competencies of the Extension human resource management model. There were seven unique competencies for the human resource management model.…