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Literature supports benefits of mentoring for induction-year school-based agricultural education (SBAE) teachers. Yet for the past 15 years, no structured mentoring program has been offered for Oklahoma SBAE induction-year teachers. This study sought to find consensus among an expert panel representing Oklahoma SBAE regarding the impact on induction-year SBAE teachers without a structured mentoring program. Panel members were asked to respond to three open-ended questions representing goals, outcomes, and impacts of a mentoring program. Sixty-two unique statements representing eight themes met consensus. Themes included building mentoring relationships, effective emotional management, effective SBAE program management, impact to the profession, student learning, teacher retention, introduction to school climate, and reinforcing effective teaching behaviors. Oklahoma SBAE induction-year teachers and programs are negatively impacted from the lack of a structured mentoring program. The planning, funding, and implementation of a mentoring program for Oklahoma SBAE induction-year teachers should be a focus of professional development.

This collective case study explored the integration of video reflection during the 15-week clinical teaching internship at three distinct points in time. Weeks three, seven, and 11 were investigated to determine if the integration of video reflection improved the quality of teacher candidate reflection and to gauge teacher candidates' views on agricultural education during the clinical teaching internship. Four overarching themes emerged from the video reflections: establishing roles as a teacher, teaching and learning, balance, and coming full circle. Throughout the internship, candidates expressed a deeper understanding of teaching within the three-component model of school-based agricultural education (SBAE). We recommend the use of video reflection during the student teaching internship to expand the depth of reflection and feeling of community among the cohort. Overall, the addition of the video reflection process has provided an efficient and effective tool that allows teacher candidates to make meaning of their experience.

Producing competent, qualified, effective teachers to meet a growing nationwide demand is a daunting task. Identifying and preparing school-based agricultural education [SBAE] teachers is no exception. The purpose of the study was to validate and refine a 58-item effective teaching instrument for SBAE teachers. The population of interest was SBAE teachers nationwide (N = 12,690). Through principal component analysis, 26 of the original 58 items were retained as measures of SBAE teacher effectiveness. The instrument was validated and found to have acceptable Cronbach's alpha levels for each of the six components. As a result, we conclude the instrument is appropriate for measuring the effectiveness of SBAE teachers and recommend it being used with other teachers, especially those in the Career and Technical Education fields.

Cooperating teachers are a key component to the success of student teaching internships, serving an integral part in "raising" a teacher. To effectively facilitate the student teaching internship, teacher preparation programs must identify cooperating teachers who align philosophically with the pedagogical training delivered by university programs (Korthagen & Kessels, 1999; Tom, 1997), specifically, cooperating teachers who can reinforce the theoretical framework underpinning the professional coursework pre-service teachers experience in university teacher preparation programs. This qualitative study sought to better understand the feedback provided to future school-based agricultural education (SBAE) teachers during their student teaching experience. Through initial and secondary coding, the research team identified themes among the feedback provided to student teachers by their cooperating teachers. The study revealed cooperating teacher feedback reflects the pedagogical training provided via the teacher preparation program, specifically, around effective teaching behaviors. Understanding the cooperating teacher feedback provides insight for teacher preparation programs.

The educational landscape in America is changing every day. The need for effective teachers, especially those in agricultural education, remains a high priority. This national study sought to identify the human capital (i.e., education, training, skills, and experiences) necessary for effective school-based agricultural education teachers. The modified Delphi approach consisting of awardwinning agricultural education teachers, state staff, and National FFA Board of Directors in the 2017 calendar year was used to collect data. Three rounds of data collection resulted in 58 characteristics, across eight different categories, reaching consensus of agreement. Panelists agreed unanimously on 28 items. The top-rated item was, "understands student needs." The eight categories emerging from the data included: Instruction, FFA, SAE, Program Planning, Balance, Diversity and Inclusion, Professionalism, and Personal Dispositions. Personal Dispositions (n = 14) and Instruction (n = 14) were the two themes generating the greatest numbers of items. SAE (n = 1) was the category with the least amount of items generated. The results of this study serve as a call to action for a balanced program and personal life, refrain from working extra hours, and limiting one's involvement in the community as a leader.

Urban agricultural educators face a number of unique challenges in performing their job duties. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to understand the essence of urban agricultural educators' meaning in their work by exploring their lived experiences. In this study, the essence emerged in the form of a metaphor: A Black Swan. The black swan represents a distinctiveness that urban agricultural educators possess in the agricultural education discipline. The black swans are guided by fusing (a) individualization, (b) self-connection, (c) contribution, (d) unification, and (e) coping abilities into a powerful construct identified as transcendence. By transcending ordinary levels of meaning, urban agricultural educators appeared to cope with their challenges in unique ways. Perhaps, the reason underlying the use of this coping strategy is the distinct population that urban agricultural educators serve since participants reported their programs were largely comprised of ethnic minority students living in low socioeconomic households. Urban agricultural educators might, therefore, continuously be faced with issues that remind them of the important role they play in their students' lives. Moving forward, the study's findings could be used as a foundation to explore and refine the discipline's current understandings of urban agricultural educators' meaning in work.

The purpose of this photovoice study was to investigate what and how pre-service teachers conceive and make meaning of exploration observations of early field experiences (EFEs). EFEs are vital components of the teacher preparation program and include all activities that occur in pre-service teacher education prior to student teaching, including exploratory observations (Retallick & Miller, 2010). Process coding of 123 photographs and reflective captions led to five themes: (a) optimizing student aperture, (b) affirming the decision to teach, (c) identifying learning strategy outcomes, (d) balancing the three components of agricultural education, and (e) creating a felt need to learn. Praxis included more purposeful inclusion of cooperating teachers as experts, distinguishing between an experience and observation, and seeking those observations outside of agricultural education classrooms.

This exploratory evaluation of Oklahoma SBAE students' perceived knowledge, experience, interest to learn more, and motivation to pursue a career in the Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources (AFNR) Career Pathway (The National Council for Agricultural Education, 2015) areas while engaging the Agricultural Career Experience (AgCE) curricular resource. The study also sought to evaluate the resource by obtaining SBAE students' and teachers' perceptions of their experience. The Theory of Planned Behavior guided the evaluation's attempt to understand students' and teachers' experience with the resource. Using a convergent, parallel mixed-methods design, data were collected through questionnaires and interviews with students and teachers. Descriptive statistics and eclectic coding strategies were used to explain the quantitative and qualitative findings. Findings were then analyzed to evaluate the curricular resource. The evaluative study found the resource to meet curricular needs associated with Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAEs) and AFNR exposure. However, challenges such as usability of the resource, student engagement, and timing impacted the students' and teachers' perceptions of the resource. It was concluded that the resource serves as a viable tool for programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School-based agricultural education (SBAE) and its teachers must remain current with the times to be effective. Producing an abundance of competent, highly qualified, effective, SBAE teachers is an ongoing prerogative, and measuring effective teaching in SBAE is difficult due to the complexity and uniqueness of the demands of the position. The purpose of this study was to identify the self-perceived characteristics of effectiveness of SBAE teachers nationwide. The effective teaching instrument for SBAE teachers (ETI-SBAE), supported by a conceptual framework considering the potential factors impacting the effectiveness of SBAE teachers, was used to determine teacher effectiveness scores in this non-experimental, descriptive survey research study. All SBAE teachers across the country were included in the study's frame. After multiple rounds of data collection, 2807 SBAE teachers responded to the study with complete data sets. It was found that these teachers are diverse and have a variety of needs depending on the state from which they responded and their years of experience. A wide range of personal and professional characteristics were identified. Based on their composite sum effectiveness score, SBAE teachers who intended to remain in the profession through retirement were statistically significantly more effective than those who did not intend to retire or were still undecided.

As agricultural educators continue to seek methods of instruction to make learning impactful for students, service-learning has emerged as a desirable technique for meeting these educational objectives. A gap in the agricultural education literature exists, however, in terms of describing whether these learning experiences motivate students intrinsically. This investigation sought to describe FFA members' level of intrinsic motivation resulting from participation in a service-learning activity, specifically the 2013 National FFA Days of Service. Deci and Ryan's Self-Determination Theory (SDT) served as the theoretical base for understanding FFA members intrinsic motivation through three empirically based constructs--interest, value, and perceived choice. Results from the study indicate FFA members were interested in and valued their service-learning experience; however, they had varied views in terms of their choice to participate. Findings also indicate a congruency between tenets of service-learning and axioms of SDT. We, therefore, offer the Intrinsic Service Learning Model in hopes of assisting practitioners of this pedagogical technique with delivering an intrinsically motivated service-learning experience for agricultural education students.

Agriculture is the nation's largest employer with more than 24 million people working in some phase of the agricultural industry; however, the knowledge and skills needed in today's agricultural industry are lacking. Assuring future generations are agriculturally literate and taught the significance of agriculture is crucial. Systematic delivery of the secondary agricultural education program has the potential to highlight mathematics and science through classroom and laboratory instruction, provide hands-on work experiences, and develop life skills that will help students discover their career paths. Through Career Development Events (CDEs), agricultural education programs have the potential to prepare students for more than 300 careers in the science, business, and technology of agriculture. However, school-based, agricultural education teachers and students may not understand fully the technical and non-technical skills learned through CDEs. A Delphi approach was used in this study to identify benefits of CDEs, as perceived by school-based, agricultural education teachers in Oklahoma. Findings revealed teachers perceived CDEs supported the mission of career and technical education through students' attainment of valuable career and life skills that are beneficial for employment in the agricultural industry; less agreement, however, existed about CDEs leading students to make career choices.

The decline of youth engagement in agriculture worldwide amidst an increasing global population remains a big challenge to ensuring food security for future generations. This phenomenon is worsened by the shortage of professional female agriculturists, though they comprise about 60% to 80% of the traditional workforce in the agriculture sector of most developing countries (Beintema & Di Marcantonio, 2009). This descriptive study had 102 participants who were members of Young Farmers Clubs (YFCs) from two secondary schools in eastern Uganda. The study's purpose was to determine the perceptions of members of YFCs on their intent to pursue agriculture-related career preparation after graduating from secondary school, including indications of familial support for preparatory experiences. The findings indicate that a large majority (95.1%) of the students was likely or highly likely to continue with their education at the post-secondary level. A high percentage (70.6%) was "likely" or "highly likely" to pursue agriculture-related career preparation; however, significant differences existed between the sexes. Female club members were less certain than their male peers about pursuing higher education involving the study of agriculture. Additional research should be conducted on how to attract more females to study agriculture at the tertiary level, especially in developing countries.

This embedded, quantitative case study included 102 participants who were members of Young Farmers Clubs (YFCs) from two secondary schools in eastern Uganda. The study's multifold purpose was to describe YFC members' personal characteristics and their reasons for joining the clubs. In addition, the study sought to determine the career interests/aspirations of the YFC members and factors influencing their decisions about career choices. Cross-sectional survey methodology was used to collect data. The findings showed a high number of members were interested in pursuing careers related to science. Students mainly joined the clubs to improve their academic performance, for personal interests, and to gain life skills. Intrinsic factors were the main influencers of career choice. Club activities had less influence on the members' career aspirations. The results point to a need for teachers, guidance counselors, and parents to consider students' interests and abilities when guiding them about career choices. Advisors should provide meaningful learning experiences for club members to explore their career interests and aptitudes. Future studies should assess the impact of childhood experiences on stimulating the career interests of adolescents, especially in developing countries.

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 experience in land laboratories, agricultural mechanics laboratories, greenhouses, nurseries, and other facilities provided by schools. For example, the agricultural industry offers 52,000 job opportunities annually, including sales and marketing, specialty veterinary medicine, food safety/biosecurity, forest ecosystem management, precision agriculture, biomaterials engineering, landscape horticulture, plant and animal genetics, specialty crops production and nutrition services (Goecker, Gilmore, Smith, & Smith, 2005). Students' SAEs should reflect such aspects of the industry. Using a modified Delphi technique, this study identified the perceptions of agricultural industry experts on the role of SAE in facilitating students learning technical skills needed for entry-level employment. The experts expected that students would learn more entry-level technical skills associated with the career pathways of Animal Science and Agricultural Communications (44 of 60) than the other five pathways combined as a result of their participation in SAEs. This paper explores rationale regarding why it is important to address this "imbalance" and makes recommendations about that. (Contains 1 figure and 2 tables.)

Supervised experiences are designed to provide opportunities for the hands-on learning of skills and practices that lead to successful personal growth and future employment in an agricultural career (Talbert, Vaughn, Croom, & Lee, 2007). In the Annual Report for Agricultural Education (2005-2006), it was stated that 91% of the respondents (i.e., students) indicated they did not have an SAE. This finding was not surprising entirely because some scholars and practitioners of agricultural education have reported empirically and anecdotally that the SAE component of the model was perhaps losing ground in many agricultural education programs (Dyer & Osborne, 1995; Wilson & Moore, 2006). The decline in delivery of this component of the model has implications regarding agricultural education's role in the preparation of students for entry-level jobs in the agricultural industry. This study used a modified Delphi technique to coalesce the views of an expert panel of agricultural education teachers on the role of SAEs in preparing students for entry-level careers in the agricultural industry. In some instances, the learning experiences being taught in secondary agricultural education may not be congruent with today's agricultural industry standards. This incongruence may be contributing to the decline in students who participate actively in SAEs. (Contains 2 figures and 1 table.)