Directing Research Efforts in Agriculture Teacher Education: The Past Is Prologue

Introduction

Teacher education in agriculture has been a part of the U.S. education system for more than 100 years. When Federal legislation instituted the teaching of agriculture in public schools, an immediate need for secondary school teachers of agriculture resulted. Eventually, universities (primarily in colleges of agriculture) developed degree programs for teacher candidates. Advanced degrees were soon added to the university offerings. The programs of agriculture teacher education expanded over time to include professional development programs for practicing teachers, supervisory and administrative functions of state agencies, graduate education, and programmatic research, in addition to the basic program of preparing secondary school teachers. The purpose of this textbook is to provide a synthesis of research in the discipline and to focus future research efforts across agriculture teacher education.

Currently, there is not a centralized research document to which the profession can reference previous studies, expand knowledge in agriculture teacher education, and showcase advancements in topical research agendas. It should be noted that the discipline currently lacks a research agenda. Recent efforts within the profession have fallen short of providing significant background and focus within the discipline and are not comprehensive to agriculture teacher education. The American Association for Agricultural Education (2007; 2010) has developed a national research agenda for the last twenty years; those documents have been broad-based for the professional organization. However, the documents lack focus and full development for agricultural teacher education. The most recent document was created in 2015.

A synthesis of research will highlight previous research conducted within the discipline, focus on foundational topics, and chart future directions and research agendas. This textbook serves the research community in the following ways: 1) provides a historical document on previous studies within the profession; 2) showcases trends and research methodologies utilized to answer questions/issues in the discipline; 3) provides for context and a paramount publication for new scholars entering the profession; 4) provides academic voice to practitioners to improve their profession; and 5) invites international collaborative efforts as this publication will make it easier for international partners to find scholarly work. This textbook is vital to developing a national research agenda that focuses on the discipline of agriculture teacher education.

Various leaders in the agriculture teacher education profession have offered thoughts regarding the status and future needs of research in the discipline. This chapter provides an overview of those thoughts as reported, beginning with articles published in the Journal of the American Association of Teacher Educators in Agriculture in 1964.

In his keynote address at the National Agricultural Education Research Meeting in 1988, Crunkilton posited the following (Crunkilton, 1988):

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  The agricultural education profession needs to chart a course for research and then develop a “map” to show where the profession has been, where it can go, and where it wants to go, including as individual researchers, as institutions, and as a profession.

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  The profession needs to develop some type of matrix, reporting and classifying system, and counting procedures that can be followed and implemented.

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  A central location should be established to store research reports, assisting with locating previous work and identifying empty spaces in the matrix for further research.

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  Researchers must be willing to report research completed.

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  For “empty cells” in the matrix, the profession must decide whether those are legitimate research areas to be considered and which are important.