Sustainable Agriculture: Teacher Beliefs and Topics Taught

Abstract

Sustainable agriculture (SA) is not fully understood. What is being taught about SA by high school agriculture teachers is also unclear. The purpose of this study was to identify the beliefs of high school agriculture teachers about SA and to examine the extent they teach SA. A mailed questionnaire was used to collect data from a random sample of 844 teachers in the North Central Region (NCR) of the United States. Teachers agreed to concepts about SA and taught selected SA topics to a moderate extent, emphasizing topics related to ecological and social dimensions of SA compared with topics having economic dimensions. In addition, teachers indicated the following topics to be most frequently taught: soil testing, crop rotation, food safety, water quality, and use of animal manure. Results of this study indicated that agriculture teachers do not include much about SA in their curricula. Further investigations into the barriers regarding infusion of SA into the curriculum would help explain what is required to enhance instruction in this subject matter.

Teacher Beliefs and the Extent to Which Sustainable Agriculture Is Taught in High School

“…The distribution of the above research variables was generally normal, as is evident from the close approximation between each value of mean and median. Details of the results are reported elsewhere (Muma et al 2010). Table 3 presents the means, modes, and standard deviations for the demographics.…”

“…Although the mean scores for various demographics with continuous values were relatively high, the modal values for the demographics were zero or five years, contradicting the higher mean values. Table 4 presents frequencies and percentages by category for the demographic variables (Muma et al 2010). Twenty percent of the teachers had the least experience (of five years) regarding teaching about agriculture.…”

“…Instead, the lack of a relationship between the two could provide a foundation on which investigations regarding the unknown variables which influence the relationship and the nature of the influence could be precisely determined. For example, a relevant question one could ask is, could problems of constraints to the teaching or adoption of SA in education such as inadequate teacher mastery of the teaching methodology and teaching innovations in SA (Straquadine 1997), or the nature of adoption (of teaching) of SA, or the pervasive influence of the conventional agriculture paradigm on society and its influence on appropriate institutional arrangements to support SA (Muma et al 2010), account for the relationship between SA beliefs and the extent to which SA is taught in high school? The finding of this study on the relationship between the two variables and explanations other studies have suggested on the constraints to the teaching of SA can provide a starting point for a better understanding of what may cause the discrepancy in the relationship.…”

Talking Sustainability: Identification and Division in an Iowa Community

“…Therefore, we wanted to speak with different kinds of people-enough different kinds that a full range of opinions would emerge through in-depth interviews and subsequent analysis of language patterns in the transcripts. In addition to farmers, some scholars have widened their scope to include other stakeholders such as researchers (Wilkins et al, 2001), extension personnel and educators (Camara, Martin, and Kwaw-Mensah, 2009;Muma, Martin, and Shelley 2010;Rodriguez et al, 2008), and consumers (Pelletier, Kraak, McCullum, and Uusitalo, 2000;Hassanein, 2008;Schneider and Francis, 2006;Stock, 2007). Such investigations are important in part because studies have confirmed that community support-or lack of it-can play a key role in farmers' decisions to adopt and maintain sustainable practices (Morton and Weng, 2009;Guptill, 2009;Rodriguez et al, 2008;Burton, 2004;Hanson, Kauffman, and Schauer, 1996).…”

High school science teachers' receptivity to the next generation science standards : an examination of discipline specific factors

“…what subject matter is and is not included, also informs how they approach instruction (Muma, Martin, Shelley, & Holmes, 2010) and how they respond to curriculum change (Paecther, 2003).…”