dc.description.abstract | The research embodying this study replicates the study performed by Mitchell (2008),
which explored the essential successes of soft skills in the twenty-first century workforce as
perceived by Alabama business/marketing teachers. However, the primary focus of this study
was regarding the perceptions that secondary agricultural teachers have on the incorporation of
soft skill development within their agricultural/FFA program. Alabama agricultural teachers
(N=125) were surveyed at their regional Association of Alabama Agricultural Educators
(AAAE) meetings using the Twenty-First Century Workforce Soft Skills Assessment survey
(TCWSSA), originally created by Mitchell (2008), providing a 97.6 percent response rate. The
fourteen soft skills surveyed were oral communication, general communication, written
communication, general ethics, diversity, time management, teamwork, problem solving/critical
thinking, organization, leadership, reliability, adaptability, conflict resolution, and business
etiquette.
Alabama agricultural teachers had a very high perception of the importance of the
integration of soft skills into agricultural curriculums (M ≥ 4.75). Correspondingly, Alabama
agricultural teachers were shown to integrate the same soft skill concepts into either a daily or
weekly schedule. Moreover, participating agricultural teachers perceived all 14 soft skill
categories to be very important, based on a Likert-type scale of 1: Not Important to 5: Extremely
Important (M ≥ 4.22). The results yielded that the number of years teaching, highest degree
held, administrational certification, grade level taught, school location, and type of school regarding the perceptions of secondary Alabama agricultural teachers on the importance of soft
skills for success in the twenty-first century workforce were not statistically significant. | en_US |