Supervision of School-based, Agricultural Education: A Historical Review

This study’s purpose was to understand the historical evolution of the supervision of school-based, agricultural education (SBAE). Supervision as a concept is described, including its emergence as an integral part of public school education in the United States. Moreover, the perspectives of early leaders of vocational education, such as Charles Prosser, are examined, as well as the impact of the Smith-Hughes Act of 1917 and other key federal legislation that came afterward. Supervision of SBAE as inspection and administrative oversight and for the purpose of instructional improvement is explored. We also discuss the early supervisory role of teacher educators of agricultural education; the ascendance and, in some cases, later decline of state staff as supervisors; and the role of local school administrators in the supervision of SBAE, including some of the philosophical tensions and divergent views among and between those stakeholders. Implications and recommendations are offered regarding the supervision of SBAE in the future, especially the role of professional organizations, such as the National Association of Agricultural Educators, the American Association for Agricultural Education, and the National Association of Supervisors of Agricultural Education, and their working in concert with The National Council for Agricultural Education

Teaching Students with Special Needs in School-Based, Agricultural Education: A Historical Inquiry

The purpose of this historical study was to investigate the inclusion of students with special needs in school-based, agricultural education as reported by The Agricultural Education Magazine and the Journal of Agricultural Education over a time period of six decades. The impact of landmark legislation, such as the Vocational Education Act of 1963, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, and the Individuals with Disabilities Act of 1990, were examined. This legislation motivated and supported agricultural education’s efforts to meet the learning needs of special education students by providing modified lessons and learning environments, inclusive SAEs and FFA activities, and focused teacher preparation. Challenges and concerns regarding the placement of special needs students in school-based, agricultural education are also discussed, as well as opportunities for related research in the future, especially about their participation in the FFA

Planned Behavior Typologies of Agricultural Education Teacher Educators Regarding Service Learning as a Method of Instruction: A National Mixed Methods Study

This study sought to understand the service-learning beliefs and intentions of agricultural education teacher educators. We collected quantitative data through a web-based survey instrument and course syllabi. Variables yielding statistically significant relationships were analyzed using cluster analysis, which produced three unique clusters operationalized as typologies representing the planned behaviors of teacher educators regarding service learning. For example, the Optimistically Unaware expressed positive beliefs about the method, but did not understand how to integrate service learning in their teaching methods courses. Meanwhile, the Policy-Focused Decision Makers used established education policy as anchors when navigating decisions, such as whether to feature service learning in their courses. Service-Learning Implementers espoused strong beliefs about the method’s potential while also emphasizing how it could be used to enrich the preparation of agriculture teachers. Results point to the potential service learning holds if integrated as a complement to teacher preparation rather than an addition to current practice

What did Aspiring Young Entrepreneurs in Nicaragua Recognize as Agribusiness and Ecotourism Opportunities using Photovoice as a Data Collection Tool?

Interest in entrepreneurship education by scholars and practitioners as a way to overcome poverty is growing. Yet little is known about how entrepreneurship can be a successful approach to achieving prosperity in resource-poor conditions. Entrepreneurship has been mainly associated with the view of entrepreneurs as super humans capable of solving all problems, especially if operating in resource-rich contexts. This qualitative study’s purpose was to explore, through photovoice methodology, the entrepreneurial opportunities involving agribusiness and ecotourism that Nicaraguan students recognized in their communities. Photovoice allowed the researchers to gain in-depth information from students who expressed in images what may have been difficult to explain in words. The students recognized different opportunities linked to their contexts as expressed through photos documenting local assets and materials. The study participants also indicated interests in doing social good, which suggested a more societally oriented view of entrepreneurship. The poor, including youth often marginalized, were able to recognize business opportunities in concert with their economic conditions. Opportunity recognition may be one of the more promising ways to overcome poverty. Its facilitation holds implications for agricultural, tourism, and rural development curricula and educational programming

Former 4-H Key Club Members\u27 Perceptions of the Impact of Giving Life Skills Preparation on Their Civic Engagement

Does 4-H make an impact on the civic engagement of adults? If so, do former 4-H members view the impact as being greater than that of other programming? This article describes perceptions of former 4-H Key Club members regarding the application of giving life skills preparation on their civic engagement. The impact of youth organizations on acquisition of giving life skills is also described. Participants agreed they were applying giving life skills acquired through 4-H, and that those experiences had a major impact on their civic engagement. It is recommended that giving life skills programming be continued

Transforming Students’ Global Knowledge and Perspectives through International Service-Learning (ISL): How U.S. University Agriculture Students Made Sense of their Lived Experiences Over Time

University agriculture students are failing in terms of their general global knowledge. As such, the need exists to examine instructional techniques that may assist in overcoming this deficiency. One such approach is international service-learning (ISL). The purpose of the current study, therefore, was to explore the lived experiences of university agriculture students who participated in an ISL opportunity to Uganda, which was partially funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of State. The essence of participants’ lived experiences is best described as a transformative shift in their global knowledge and perspectives. The processes that foregrounded this shift are described through six themes of meaning: (a) contextual border crossing; (b) dissonance; (c) personalizing; (d) processing; (e) connecting; and (f) sustained relationships. Findings suggest students’ perspectives could be modified through ISL. Using Kiely’s (2005) transformative learning model for service-learning (TLMSL), recommendations are offered for research, theory-building, and practice

Examining the General Global Competence of Students Enrolled in an International Dimension Course: An Attempt to Internationalize Undergraduate Education in a College of Agriculture

Many U.S. colleges and universities are concerned with how best to prepare students to become globally competent citizens. Therefore, the need existed to examine the general global competence of students enrolling in international dimension (ID) courses at Oklahoma State University. This investigation was a census study; the target population included all undergraduate students (N = 147) enrolled in three ID courses offered in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources (CASNR) during the fall semester of the 2010–2011 academic year. General knowledge instruments were used to gather pretest and posttest data to measure differences. Although students’ post-course scores were higher than pre-course scores, their overall performance was below 60%. This difference in knowledge gain connoting general global competence was statistically significant (p \u3c .05), but the corresponding effect size was small, which signaled little practical significance. Whether ID courses are an efficacious way of achieving substantial change in students’ general global competence remains an open question. A more appropriate method to assess change in general global competence may be writing assignments. Faculty are encouraged to improve their ID courses by infusing learning experiences that stand to enhance students’ general global competence while complementing content-specific objectives

Teaching Perspectives of Faculty Members at an 1862 Land-grant University: A Snapshot of One Institution with Implications for Improving Instruction at All

As part of a larger study, this report describes the dominant teaching perspectives of faculty members with teaching appointments at an 1862 land-grant institution. A census study of the institution’s faculty was conducted during the Fall semester of 2013; 157 (12.1%) faculty members representing seven colleges provided usable responses. The participants completed Pratt and Collins’ (n.d.) Teaching Perspectives Inventory (TPI) to determine their dominant perspective(s), i.e., apprenticeship, developmental, nurturing, social reform, or transmission, and responded to questions about selected personal characteristics. All five dominant teaching perspectives were expressed by participants; 134 (85.5%) held a single dominant perspective. Apprenticeship was the most prevalent, followed by transmission and then developmental. About 15% identified with two or more perspectives. Some differences in dominant perspectives emerged by gender and college affiliation. Nearly half reported never taking a pedagogy/andragogy course. If faculty members are struggling with teaching or perceive the need to reinvigorate or reorient their approaches to instruction, taking the TPI could be a good first step, especially if followed by specific actions to improve their teaching. The TPI is available online and can be self-administered free of charge; takers receive an individualized report and advice on interpreting the results

Improving Livelihoods through Youth-Adult Partnerships involving School-based,Agripreneurship Projects: The Experiences of Adult Partners in Uganda

The increasing number of unemployed and underemployed youth across the globe, especially indeveloping countries, has reached alarming levels. In Africa, for example, this phenomenon hasled to some youth making treacherous journeys across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe and other parts of the world in search of better livelihoods. Such an influx of immigrants, primarily to Europe and North America, has caused resentment and outcries by many citizens of the affected nations. Some of these challenges, however,could be allayed by engaging youth in income-generating projects, including agricultural entrepreneurship, i.e., agripreneurship,tocreate jobs and improve livelihoods. This maybe achieved through Youth-Adult Partnerships (Y-APs) by which youth and adults work together on agricultural projects of mutual interest. This study explored the experiences of adult partners in Uganda who collaborated with youth on their school-based, agripreneurial projects (SAPs) involving the raising of broiler chickens. Because of their partnership working on SAPs, both the youths’and adults’ knowledge and understanding of concepts related to agripreneurship and raising of broilers chickens improved. The need exists to provide an enabling environment to promote an agripreneurial culture among youth through Y-APs if we seek to inspire them to pursue agripreneurship and related opportunities for job creation while also enabling the food security of communities and improved livelihoods for their citizens

A Historical Overview of Protected Agriculture in the State of Sinaloa, Mexico: Implications for Improving Rural Prosperity

Economic development is an important phenomenon that can positively impact societal problems such as poverty, lack of education, and insufficient infrastructure, among other ills. In this regard, technological advances are essential to making better use of resources. The agricultural sector is no exception. With the passage of time, advances in agriculture have allowed processes to be optimized, improving production practices and minimizing risks, by using innovative technologies (Schenkel, Finley, & Chumney, 2012). For this reason, the adoption and use of approaches to protected agricultural production grew steadily in the State of Sinaloa, Mexico during the last century and until today. Such technology assisted significantly in the economic development of the region. This inquiry sought to understand factors and forces that augmented expansion of protected agriculture, especially regarding tomato production, and its advantages compared to traditional systems, as experienced by producers in Sinaloa. Understanding such a phenomenon may provide important implications for improving the economies of similar contexts in need of economic development where agriculture is a viable secto