Self-Efficacy of Early Career Agriculture Teachers and Its Relationship to Career Commitment and Job Satisfaction

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe the self-efficacy of Georgia early-career agriculture teachers and its relationship to job satisfaction and career commitment. The participants in this study were Georgia agricultural education teachers with five years or less experience teaching middle or high school agriculture. This descriptive and correlational study utilized a quantitative non-experimental survey research design. The data were analyzed using means, frequencies, standard deviations, t-tests, ANOVA, and regressions. It was concluded that Georgia early-career agriculture teachers reflect the national trend in regards to their personal characteristics. Self-efficacy was lowest in the area of Supervised Agricultural Experiences, followed by classroom and laboratory, and finally FFA. Georgia early-career agriculture teachers have moderate levels of job satisfaction and career commitment. Older agriculture teachers and those with add-on certification had significantly lower levels of self-efficacy than other groups. The regression model developed showed an impact of classroom and laboratory self-efficacy on job satisfaction and career commitment. Based on these findings, activities to increase self-efficacy in classroom and laboratory job responsibilities may increase career commitment and job satisfaction, ultimately leading to higher retention of agriculture teachers. Activities could include the opportunity to observe a successful teacher with a group of students that may be hard to work with or manage, developing relationships between new and experienced teachers that can provide encouragement and implementing reflective process before and after the student teaching apprenticeship.