Identifying Extension Agent Needs Associated with Communicating about Policies and Regulations

Abstract

The Cooperative Extension Service has performed the role of educator and change agent for more than a century. Changes occurring during this period caused Extension to extend its influence beyond the farm and traditional roles. Today, Extension faces controversial public issues and unparalleled levels of policy and regulation impacting agriculture and natural resources. As the needs of our changing society evolve, regulation increases, and response to public opinion becomes more complex. Extension must expand its role in providing education related to public issues and acting as facilitators and change agents to ensure viable actions are taken. This study was conducted to determine the level of preparedness of Florida Extension agents in dealing with policies and regulations. An emailed survey of all Florida Extension agents utilized questions regarding frequency of addressing policies with their clientele and their knowledge of said policies. Results indicated a low frequency of agents of all types addressing most policies with their clientele and a need for increased knowledge about the policies. In particular, there is an opportunity for all agent types to improve interactions with clientele on the topic of Immigration Reform as well as knowledge of related policies.

Early-Career Challenges of Youth Development Extension Educators and Effective Strategies

“…Understanding organizational policies and procedures is an important challenge for new extension educators. It is necessary to improve extension educators' knowledge about policies [38]. There are 4 strategies out of the 14 that can be used for managing this challenge.…”

Using Adoption and Perceived Characteristics of Fertilizer Innovations to Identify Extension Educational Needs of Florida's Resedential Audiences

“…Convincing people to adopt new ideas or behaviors is challenging, even when the advantages of adoption seem obvious (Rogers, 2003). Importantly, planning an impactful Extension program that leads to behavior change is reliant on the development and use of a needs assessment to understand client needs, so appropriate program content and delivery methods can be used (McCaslin & Tibezinda, 1997;Rumble, Lamm & Gay, 2018). For this reason, understanding residents' decision-making, motivations, and educational needs pertaining to fertilizer best management practices (BMPs) is important to discourage improper fertilizer application and nutrient losses.…”