Open PRAIRIE: Open Public Research Access Institutional Repository and Information Exchange
Abstract
Travel outside the area is vital to the success of vocational agriculture programs. It enables the instructor to improve professionally through his attendance at conferences, conventions, and other meetings held for purposes of in-service improvement. An integral portion of the vocational agriculture teacher’s responsibilities also entails visiting students and their parents on their home farms. Travel benefits students as well. Students in vocational agriculture classes “learn by doing”. Without travel some of the effectiveness of the vocational agriculture programs could be lost, since the home farm, as well as industries related to agriculture, serve as the laboratory. The purpose of this research problem is to determine the average number of miles traveled by vocational agriculture teachers in South Dakota; the methods by which they are reimbursed for the cost of such travel each year; the extent of travel in terms of purposes for which the travel is used; and whether any relationship exists between travel allowances and the possibilities teachers have in carrying out sound programs of instruction. In delimiting the purposes of such travel this study also purposes to ascertain (1) the number of miles traveled in supervised farming instruction (2) the number of schools providing the instructor with means of transportation other than the use of his own vehicle, and (3) the proportion of vocation agriculture instructors who receive reimbursement for expenses incurred when away from home on vocational agriculture work
