Factors Influencing Agriscience Students Membership Choice in the Alabama FFA Association

Abstract

The agricultural education youth organization, FFA, has always been considered an integral part of high school agriscience courses. However, there are many students who enroll in agricultural education courses and do not participate in FFA activities. In 1981-82 Alabama had nearly 25,000 FFA members out of over 32,000 Agriscience Education students and today there are a little less than 14,000 FFA members out of nearly 28,000 Agriscience Education students (Appendix B). So what happened? The findings from this study showed that the typical student respondent enrolled in an agriscience education course in Alabama during the 2013 school year was from the North FFA District of Alabama (See Appendix H), he was a 15 year old male with a Caucasian-American (White) background. One third of his classmates were female; nearly one fourth of his classmates were a year older, and approximately 18.1% were African-America (Black). He had very few Hispanic-Americans, Asian-American and students that were classified as other in his agriscience education classes. The typical agriscience education student was a ninth grader who lived in a small town of 5,000 or fewer people. A little over a third of his agriscience classmates also lived in a rural area although not on a farm or ranch. Less than 0.8% of his classmates lived in a city with a population of 50,000 or more. He had self-reported grades of mostly B's and had not been a member of 4-H organization, although nearly one-third of his friends belonged to that 4-H organization. He, along with nearly half of his classmates was a member of the FFA.

This study will hopefully serve as a supplement for agriscience teachers, the Alabama FFA Association and others who are interested in the progress of the FFA. This study will hopefully identify both the reasons why students join the FFA and why they do not. Information pertaining to barriers that prevent agriscience students in Alabama from joining the FFA was obtained. Such information will be of utmost importance to agriscience educational personnel in designing FFA programs and activities which meet agriscience student needs in the future.