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The New Farmers of America (NFA) was a national organization existing from 1934 to 1965 when it merged with the National Future Farmers of America (FFA) Organization. S. B. Simmons, a leader in agricultural education throughout African American public schools, and early founder of the NFA, worked diligently to provide a place for rural African American boys to develop leadership, citizenship, sportsmanship, and moral values. This place existed in the form of a North Carolina NFA camp. Established in 1953, the North Carolina NFA Camp, located in Onslow County, saw boys from across the state for a week-long experience. The benefits of the camp branched further than simply learning to start a campfire or host a cookout. Later dedicated the S. B. Simmons Camp, rural African American boys benefited from leadership classes, recreational activities, and even public speaking opportunities to further develop themselves. Although no longer in existence, the morals imprinted in students at the S. B. Simmons Camp are ever apparent today at the remaining North Carolina FFA camp and throughout the National FFA Organization.

Canning and home demonstration clubs played an important role in improving agriculture and home life shortly after the turn of the 20th century. Organized in local communities, these clubs for young girls and their mothers provided the opportunity for females to engage in experiential learning through the growth and canning of vegetables. Club work and activities allowed the involved individuals to learn important home life concepts including incorporating more nutritious meals, record keeping, maintaining the family garden, and other duties surrounding the home. In addition, clubs promoted cooperation among various groups, fostered friendships, and provided entrepreneurial opportunities for farm women. Movements such as these increased the demand for agricultural and extension education and many of the strategies developed through these clubs can be implemented in both formal and non-formal education today.

Transformative leaders are committed to values and outcomes that serve the long-term interests of society (Caldwell, Dixon, Floyd, Chaudoin, Post, & Cheokas, 2012). The Oaks Leadership Scholars Program is rooted in the premise that the transformation of self, required to become a transformative leader, can be supported through development of active and public identities of learner, ally, advocate, and activist through engagement in related behaviors and participation in Communities of Practice surrounding social justice causes. Students are nominated for the program, proceed through the application process, are interviewed, and are selected from throughout the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at North Carolina State University based on their ("their" will be used interchangeably in this manuscript as both a singular or plural pronoun) engagement in learner and ally identities and their interest in, and commitment to, issues of justice and equity. Included in this article are the program's learning objectives, teaching component examples, evaluation results, and a description of future directions for the program.

Blending agricultural education (AE) and environmental education (EE) frameworks is a promising pathway towards the goals of boosting environmental engagement and support for local agricultural systems among broad public audiences. However, thoughtful and intentional collaboration between researchers is needed to facilitate these outcomes. We feel it is important to collapse existing disciplinary walls between AE and EE to effectively reposition both as critical public goods and address inequitable access to environmental and agricultural knowledge among the next generation. In this paper, we outline the historical context for the silos between U.S.-based AE and EE programmatic and research practice. We then present a new collaborative structure for scholars in both fields to work together to build agricultural and environmental literacy in support of environmentally sustainable, economically robust, and socially responsible agroecosystems. Ultimately, we aim to create structures for broader and more collaborative efforts through which to improve agricultural and environmental literacy for new generations of learners.

This study used an exploratory case study approach to explore the motivations and challenges of underrepresented students enrolled in a post-secondary agricultural education degree program. The study's sample consisted of four agricultural education undergraduate students who self-identified as members of an underrepresented group (URG) categorized as: 1) ethnic minority, 2) LGBTQ+, 3) low income, and/or 4) first generation college student. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data with thematic content analysis to determine the themes present regarding motivations for enrolling and perceptions of challenges among participants. Motivation themes included students involved in high school agricultural education programs, positive influence of adults, fun and interesting agricultural content, community feeling, and exposure to teaching experience. Perceptions of challenges for participants were financial burden, cross-race effect, possible discrimination, and isolation. This study focused on underrepresented groups, therefore, generalizability across all students enrolled in agricultural education is not possible. However, this study does provide valuable insight into the perspectives of underrepresented students and a voice for these students to hopefully invoke change in policies, structures, and activities in agricultural education programs locally and nationally.

This research sought to determine if graduate students taking distance education classes desire student-to-student interaction. Over 200 graduate students who completed one or more distance education graduate classes in agricultural and extension education from North Carolina State University during the past three years were surveyed. While some students desired student-to-student interaction, the majority of the respondents do not particularly like or want student-to-student interaction. When various sub-groups of the population (disaggregated by gender, personality type, age, work status, and student status) were examined, the results were the same. None of the sub-groups embraced student-to-student interaction in distance education classes.

After the implementation of No Child Left Behind in 2002, national educational standards reform has supported the idea that improvements in education can result from rigorous standards that uniformly evaluate learning. Educational assessment, however, is under increased scrutiny and teachers, students, as well as educational policy makers struggle to balance curriculum reforms. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to determine the perceptions of agricultural education teachers regarding implementing Common Core State Standards in their programs. Data were collected through five structured interviews conducted with agricultural education instructors adopting the Common Core State Standards curriculum within their classrooms and analyzed using the constant comparative method. Overall, teachers were positive about the implementation of Common Core State Standards in their programs; however, teachers acknowledged challenges to implementing these standards, including a sense of voicelessness and complacency. Teachers also expressed a perception of helplessness with the ever-changing cycle of educational initiatives.

This study examined the accessibility and use of instructional technologies by agriculture teachers in Tennessee. Data were collected using a survey instrument to investigate teachers' adoption of technology, sources of acquired technology skills, accessibility and use of technological equipment, and barriers to technology integration. The study found Tennessee agriculture teachers have been slow to adopt technologies for classroom use. Many of the teachers had limited access to the various technologies. Over half of the teachers did not have access to new educational technologies such as a Smartboard, student response clickers, iPads, iPods, or smartphones. Additionally, there was limited access to most social networks, several web tools, a commercial learning management system, and social bookmarking sites. Cost, time, and availability of technology were recognized as barriers to technology integration. It is recommended further research be conducted on a larger scale to examine technology integration in agriculture classrooms. As well, classroom observations and interviews with teachers and administrators can provide a more in-depth understanding of current technology usage in agricultural education.

In order for agricultural education teachers to adapt to an ever-changing educational environment, they must possess the skills necessary to integrate technology into their classrooms. The purpose of this study was to examine the factors that influence North Carolina agriculture teachers' ability to integrate educational technology. This study examined the identification of sources contributing to agriculture teachers' technological knowledge, their attitudes towards technology integration, and barriers to the inclusion of technology in agriculture classrooms. Agriculture teachers acquired technology skills to a moderate extent from personal trial and error and interaction with other faculty/staff. Teachers felt technology allowed students to be creative, allowed students to access course materials easily, appealed to the learning styles of students, and provided opportunities for individualized instruction. The expense of technology was identified as the greatest barrier to technology integration.

This study examined the integration of technology into the instructional process in North Carolina agricultural education classrooms. The study used survey research methodology to collect information on the availability of instructional technology and the frequency of instructional technology use by North Carolina agriculture teachers. The study found most teachers had access to digital projectors and digital cameras. Agriculture teachers also had convenient access to a teacher desktop computer and teacher laptop computer. The most commonly used software included Internet browsers and software for managing student records. Use of technology by agriculture students was less frequent and commonly consisted of Internet searching and use of reference materials on CD-ROMs. It is recommended the findings of this research study be used to inform future professional development offerings. Also, there should be additional investigation of appropriate learner-centered approaches to technology integration and continued research on the availability and utilization of educational technology in agriculture classrooms over time.

The edTPA, a validated teacher performance assessment, is being used across the nation to assess the readiness of career and technical education (CTE) student teachers for a successful career in education. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of the relationship between edTPA and both Technology and Agricultural Education student teacher's self-efficacy throughout their student teaching. This quasi-experimental study compared mean of self-efficacy as measured by the Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale (TSES) to edTPA scores from Agricultural Education and Technology Education student teachers at a southern land-grant university. This study found a negative correlation between self-efficacy means at the end of the student teaching semester and overall edTPA score. Self-efficacy in some students was found to decrease after internal submission when given feedback on progress and performance. All participants were shown to increase in self-efficacy from the beginning to the end of the student teacher experience.

Teacher educators have the task of identifying skills most needed by pre-service teachers and in-service teachers. The purpose of this study was to describe teacher concerns over different stages of teacher development. A three-part instrument consisting of a teacher concerns statement, a Likert-type scale of concerns and demographic data was given to three groups. The groups consisted of early career teacher education students (N = 40), advanced teacher education students (N = 15), and teachers who had completed their first year of teaching and were just beginning their second year (N = 22). The results of this study indicate concern levels do change over time and there is a distinct shift in both the level and type of concerns across these three groups. This shift may allow for agricultural education courses and in-service programming to be more uniquely designed to address the specific needs and concerns of our educational clientele. (Contains 3 tables.)

This national study used the Delphi technique to identify the issues facing urban agriscience teachers. The first round of the study used a questionnaire with one open-ended question to generate responses from the expert panel. In the second round, respondents were asked to rate their level of agreement with 72 issues identified in round one using a Likert-type scale. In round three, participants were asked to indicate their agreement or disagreement with 49 statements retained from round two. Consensus was reached on 17 issues facing agriscience teachers in urban areas which were identified as: challenges presented by the No Child Left Behind legislation; lack of awareness of agriculture by parents, faculty, community and students; lack of parental involvement; budgets and school funding; and time management. (Contains 2 tables.)

The intent of this exploratory study was to inventory the motivations of the North Carolina FFA Meats Evaluation Career Development Event (CDE) competitors and investigate the relationship motivation has on performance. Participants (n = 93) completed a battery of motivational measures (achievement goals, grit, interest, self-efficacy, task value, and control beliefs) during the CDE that was then connected to their individual score in the contest. Students showed high mastery-approach and performance-approach goal orientations, and rated "competition" as the primary motivator for participation in the CDE. Achievement goals, interest, self-efficacy, and control beliefs were all positively correlated to performance (p < 0.05). Females outperformed males and were more likely to be motivated by "competition." Results indicate the need for future studies to compare different CDEs, and include the predictive power of motivational measures on performance.

Since the 1983 U.S Department of Education's report, "A Nation at Risk," various educational initiatives have been developed to support an increase in state standards and greater educational accountability (Liebtag, 2013). Despite opportunities to link Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and instructional curriculum, CTE teachers often describe a lack of preparedness to teach the CCSS standards. The purpose of this exploratory study was to better understand CTE teachers' perceptions of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) after completion of a professional development training program (i.e., CORE Community). Over 170 teachers completed the CORE Community training, of those 71 teachers completed an electronic survey designed to measure teacher's perceptions of their integration of the CCSS in their classrooms. Prior to CORE Community training, only half of the participants had received additional training on CCSS. Overall, even after directed CCSS training, participants desired additional resources and ideas for integration, though they did indicate changes in their methods of CCSS integration after completing the training program and an increased likelihood to reach out to other teachers for assistance in integrating CCSS.

The edTPA has recently emerged within the past few years as an innovative Teacher Performance Assessment and is currently adopted to some extent in 34 states. Researchers conducted four focus groups with 16 teacher candidates during and immediately after completion of the edTPA at North Carolina State University. When asked to articulate about their experience with the edTPA, numerous participants believed edTPA to be nearly overwhelming and confusing. Participants also felt the edTPA did not adequately capture their totality of their student teaching experience. These stresses and general confusion were not alleviated with assistance from the cooperating teacher. They believed the edTPA enhanced deep, focused reflection on their teaching practice. Teacher candidates also believed the edTPA, while not adequately capturing the totality of the student teaching experience, did serve as a quality assessment of their teaching practice.

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) have been adopted in 43 states within the U.S. However, Career and Technical Education (CTE) teachers are often unsure how their programs can successfully integrate CCSS. The purpose of this study was to understand how participants in a CCSS professional development project perceive the CCSS and how they are currently implementing standards in their classroom prior to beginning the training program. Data were collected through electronic surveys from CTE teachers who agreed to take part in of the CORE Community training program through the Association of Career and Technical Education (n = 170). Only 34% (n = 58) of respondents indicated currently using the CCSS in their teaching while 65% (n = 110) indicated they had received no training on how to integrate CCSS. Participants were most interested in learning how other teachers were using the CCSS in their classrooms and what resources were available for teaching. Teachers were least concerned with the CCSS being a distraction from their content. In regards to trainings needs, teachers indicated they needed the most support identifying education resources and describing the CCSS to other teachers. Teachers also identified ways they were currently integrating English/language arts and math into their programs.

The article presents an interview with Wendy Warner talking about collaborative practice with multiple practitioners offering various skills and techniques. Topics include taking care of healthy people who have short-term problems, short-term gynecologic problems; and doing some little lectures for my patients at the office about how to get through menopause without using hormones.

TAKE A LOOK AROUND AT THE STUDENTS IN ANY CLASSROOM. YOU WILL FIND STUDENTS who love to work on group projects and those students who detest collaborative efforts. Some students [...]