Title: Sustainable K-12 Agricultural Education: One Tool for Success
Abstract: With the expansion of 'sustainability novements across the country, the plethora of definitions for continues to increase. Most popular and literal definitions include the idea of processes can be continued - either indefinitely or for the implicit time period of concern (LeIe, 1991, p. 608-609). The intent of this article not to educate the readers on the latest practice that should be implemented to ensure future generations the environment we currently enjoy, but to discuss how to sustain effective K-12 agricultural education programs where and whenever necessary. Rowe (2007) argues that state education standards that focus solely on reading, writing, and arithmetic not relate to societal problems and solutions, and create barriers to learning about sustainability (p. 324). One may construe that agricultural education using the Total Program model does not show the problems described by Rowe (2007) and truly prepares students not only in and about sustainability, but also for post secondary education, career success, and to contribute positively to society. Agricultural educators understand the importance of connecting curriculum to societal problems, and have strived to educate and prepare future leaders to serve as stewards of the environment. The one million dollar question is, however - with the new challenges we are facing, how do we make agricultural education sustainable, and assure that agricultural education forever valuable from economic, environmental, and social perspectives? For the purposes of this article, the authors have chosen to use the Diffusion of Innovations model as presented by Everett M. Rogers (2003) to describe one process that can be used by teachers to insure sustainable agricultural education. In our case, will be the agricultural education curriculum and/or FFA programming, and the potential adopters will be K-12 students. Rogers (2003) contends that there are five stages of decision making: 1. Knowledge; 2. Persuasion; 3. Decision; 4. Implementation; and 5. Confirmation. Knowledge happens when the student is exposed to an innovation's existence and gains an understanding of how it functions (Rogers, 2003, p. 169). A danger to the of agricultural education programs to assume that this where agricultural educators need to start. To begin, teachers must first understand the needs of the system, and then develop a felt need for change and among students before they can connect to the curriculum. Dewey said it skillfully in his pedagogic creed, first published in 1897 - I believe that the only true education comes through the stimulation of the child's powers by the demands of the social situations in which he finds himself (as cited in Infed, par. 5). For example, in teacher education programs, we can lecture and preach to our students about the importance of classroom organization and management, but most don't see the importance of this until they student teach and/or land their first teaching position - then they really make the connection. The lesson learned from mistakes made at the knowledge stage that all secondary educators must perform annual needs assessments so as to paint a clearer picture of their clientele's (students, families, industry, school, community, society) needs, and the direction their programs must take to stay sustainable. Persuasion takes place when the student forms a favorable or unfavorable attitude toward the innovation (Rogers, 2003, p. 169). This stage depends highly on the characteristics of the innovation. For example, positive attitudes towards agricultural education programs may be formed if teachers can show that their programs are better than other options available, are compatible with the system (e.g., with the rest of the school curriculum, with the academic and professional aspirations of the students), are understandable (students understand what will they gain and what will be expected of them), can be tried with minimum risk (students do not miss the possibility of pursuing other opportunities if they choose the agricultural education route), and are observable (the program can show positive results with other students). …
Publication Year: 2008
Publication Date: 2008-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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