Beginning Georgia Agriculture Teachers Motivation For Teaching Agriculture

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the level of motivation for tasks associated with program standards for beginning agriculture education teachers in Georgia. The participants in the study were middle and high school agriculture education teachers who had a minimum of one year of teaching experience in agricultural education. Study participants were asked to determine their level of motivation for quality indicators based upon the National Quality Program Standards for Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resource (AFNR) Education produced by the National Council for Agricultural Education. This descriptive and correlational study produced data that was analyzed and reported using frequencies, percentages, means, standard deviations, t-tests, and ANOVAs. The findings, conclusions, and resulting recommendations focused on the themes of the total program, experiential learning settings and evaluation, student leadership and the FFA, working in the community with key stakeholders, advisory committees, marketing of program, and instructing students in AFNR careers. Initial findings reported the highest motivator for each National Quality Program Standard along with an overall ranking of the standards. The highest ranked standard was standard 3 leadership through FFA, and the lowest ranked standard was standard 5, marketing. Additional findings, conclusions, and resulting recommendations were also presented based on correlational results focusing on significant differences determined for personal and program characteristics based on gender, teacher age, number of teachers per program, and number of students per course. Recommendations were made from data results based on practice, teacher preparation, and future research.