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Approximately half of a million educators move or leave the profession each year with an estimated 41% of all educators exiting within the first five years. Additionally, agriculture teacher preparation programs are not producing enough graduates to meet current demands with 1,476 agricultural teacher vacancies existing in 2016 and only 772 individuals completing an approved teacher preparation program to become fully licensed. While the lack of young people entering the teaching profession is concerning, researchers have suggested teacher attrition is the predominant reason behind the ongoing teacher shortage. The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify factors influencing former agriculture teachers’ decision to leave the classroom. Themes developed that stem from unrealized expectations for one’s career and the belief that being an excellent agriculture teacher is incompatible with a satisfying personal life. A final theme indicated the need for additional support alongside a philosophical shift in the profession that dictates “more is not always better.” Recommendations are made for further research along with ideological and practical shifts needed within the profession to improve teacher retention.

Scholarship within the social sciences of agriculture, food, and natural resources (AFNR) exists, in part, to inform solutions to complex problems. Increasingly, complex problems are found at the nexus of social and ecological systems; therefore, scholarship within the social sciences of AFNR must mirror this social-ecological characteristic. Existing AFNR social science literature on resilience lacks the required social-ecological perspective, conceptualizing resilience as an individual characteristic. The absence of a social-ecological perspective of resilience fails to holistically address the complexity of AFNR systems and the challenge therein. Therefore, the current manuscript seeks to inform social science scholarship within AFNR by foregrounding social-ecological resilience as a necessary approach to addressing the complexity of challenges found throughout AFNR systems. Included in the discussion is a critical review of individual resilience, an introduction to adaptation and transformation, an outline of social-ecological resilience, an in-depth analysis of the seven principles of social-ecological resilience, and a discussion of social-ecological resilience thinking applied to the seven research priority areas described by the American Association for Agricultural Education. In total, the current manuscript paves the way for additional systems-based research in the AFNR social sciences by introducing critical concepts and approaches related to social-ecological resilience.

The purpose of this study was to examine factors impacting college student leadership development within a college of agriculture at the University of Missouri. This study employed descriptive relational survey methods to examine the impact of involvement factors (participation in organizations, community service and leadership education) on college student leadership development. The target population was all junior and senior students in the College of Agricutlure, Food and Natural Resources at the University of Missouri (N=1,124). Out of the calculated sample size (n=287), 107 participants completed the online instrument (37.3%). In the examination of the leadership outcomes, the greatest mean was reported for the outcome of commitment and the lowest mean was reported for the outcome of change. Most students were involved with two to five different organizations during their college career. A majority (92.5%) of the students reported that they have engaged in community service during their college career, although 44.9% of respondents did not participate in community service on a regular basis. Students responded as being involved in one to two short-term leadership education programs, but no long-term leadership education programs. Eight separate linear regression models were analyzed to determine the impact of involvement factors on the development of socially responsible leadership.

Currently, less than 3% of the U.S. population lives on a farm (Riedel, 2006). Technological advances and mechanization coupled with other societal factors, have led to the decline of an agriculturally literate population (Kovar & Ball, 2013). Blair (2009) identified one strategy for increasing agricultural literacy as implementing education that promotes agricultural activities via experience. This quantitative study was conducted at three private schools in Mississippi during the spring of 2015. The primary investigator (PI) taught six (6) lessons contextualized in agriculture to tenth grade students enrolled in advanced biology courses. The study consisted of a control group (no instruction), and two experimental groups; one received direct instruction only, and one was led through various experiences relevant to plant science and agricultural production with a high-tunnel greenhouse. Pre and post-tests assessed knowledge gain. Participants’ knowledge scores increased significantly among experimental groups (p < .001). Multivariate analysis revealed post-test scores between experimental groups were significantly different (p = .016). Further analysis of the data displayed that 67% of the variance in scores was attributed to method of instruction and a strong correlation existed between post-test scores and treatment group (R = .820).

Understanding the teaching and learning paradigm is a relentless search for educators. Because individual students bring their own learning style preferences to the learning environment, teachers are asked to consider and even adjust their teaching to these preferences to improve student learning. In Kolb’s (1984) experiential learning theory, learners have preferences for how they grasp and transform information. These considerations have implications for students’ success, or lack thereof, in the classroom. This study determined the interactions that existed between learning style and successful intelligence of secondary agricultural education students. No statistically significant differences were found regarding teaching approaches and students’ preferred method of grasping information. However, statistically significant interactions were identified related to students’ preferences for transforming information and performance on an analytical assessment. Recommendations point to infusing variability in the classroom, especially in how students are asked to transform the information they have grasped previously. Further research should focus on the motivational outcomes resulting from experiential instruction delivered to students of varying learning styles.

The agriculture and natural resources (ANR) sectors are facing many complex and controversial issues today, including animal health, biotechnology, climate change, food safety, food security, invasive species, marketing and trade, and water. Undergraduate students, as the future ANR workforce, must use critical thinking skills to find solutions to these issues. This study sought to determine if a course that integrated case studies, as opposed to a classroom with no case study integration, influenced students’ critical thinking. A pretest/posttest, quasi-experimental research design was used to determine if undergraduate students' critical thinking styles changed as a result of the case study integration. Three undergraduate communication courses focused on issues education at three universities were the sample. Based on the results, students were more willing to seek out information and engage with their peers about the issues facing ANR after the course with the case studies integrated. Case studies should be integrated into the classroom to encourage critical thinking based on these findings. Future research should include investigating the effects of using case studies in other undergraduate courses not focused on issues, in graduate courses, and extension education programs that could determine the effect in a non-formal education setting.

Changes in Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAEs) and a lack of SAE category knowledge have been identified as causes to declining SAE participation (Dyer & Osborne, 1995; Steel, 1997; Wilson & Moore, 2007). Recently, the National Council for Agricultural Education and the National FFA Organization have redefined SAE and created new categories for SAEs in an attempt to be more inclusive of agricultural projects and to increase participation. This descriptive study assessed (n=116) school-based agricultural education (SBAE) teachers’ knowledge in categorizing SAE scenarios into previous and new SAE categories. Teacher familiarity with old and new categories was determined as well as teacher practices and opinions on new categories. Results indicated teachers were more familiar with old SAE categories than new categories. SBAE teachers consistently scored lower on their ability to classify SAE scenarios with new SAE categories compared to old categories. Teachers thought new categories were more difficult to teach students and most teachers had not taught their students information on new categories. This led to the recommendation for streamlined communication between decision-making groups in the agricultural education community and SBAE teachers in the field. Various forms of professional development are needed for teachers in the area of SAE categorization.

For decades, teacher education programs have suffered from teacher shortages in many content areas. Due to high teacher turnover rate there has been an increase in the number of teachers who are entering the field through alternative certification programs. It has been noted that the professional development needs of traditionally and alternatively certified teachers may differ drastically. The purpose of this study was to identify the professional development needs of agriculture teachers in Louisiana based on certification type. Data were collected at each of the three Louisiana FFA Leadership Camp sessions during the Louisiana Agriculture Teacher’s Association meeting held on the first day of camp. In all, 190 agriculture teachers registered for camp and 164 completed the instrument, representing an 86.0% response rate of camp attendees and 62.8% of the total agriculture teacher population. The results from this study indicated that professional development related to Program Management was the only statistically significant difference between the two groups. Specifically, the traditionally certified teachers felt a greater need for professional development in this area. Based on this research, there may be less difference in the professional development needs of teachers based on certification type in Louisiana than expected compared to previous research.

Water quality is a complex issue and residential fertilizer can be one of the many contributors to poor water quality. Working with residential audiences to help them understand and reduce their impacts on water quality is an important task among many agricultural education and Extension professionals. In order to effectively work with residential audiences, we must first understand what influences their intent to engage in fertilizer best management practices. In this research, we paired the Diffusion of Innovations and Elaboration Likelihood Model to examine the influence of perceptions of an innovation’s characteristics, personal involvement with water, and communication on intent to engage in fertilizer best management practices. The communication was presented to experimental groups as a 35-second video about fertilizer best management practices. Data were collected via a survey instrument and were analyzed using inferential procedures. Four of the five characteristics of innovations significantly influenced intent to engage in fertilizer best management practices among the control group. However, all five characteristics were significant among the entire sample but the influence was less compared to the control group. Involvement increased intent while the video treatments had little effect. The results of the research support existing findings, but also offer areas of new discovery as well as insights for practice and additional study. Future research should examine the repetition of communication as well as different dimensions of involvement.