Predicting Agricultural Education Student Teachers' Intention to Enter Teaching

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore how the student teaching experience and other variables influenced student teachers' intentions to teach. Data were collected from 80 student teachers at three universities—a land grant/research I institution, a non-land grant/doctoral degree granting institution, and a comprehensive regional institution. Data were collected longitudinally at four points during the student teaching semester. The typical student teacher in this study was a 22-year-old, white, male undergraduate who had been enrolled in agricultural education courses in high school and who had worked full time in agriculture. Intentions to teach did not change during the student teaching experience but did differ by university. The best predictor of a student teacher's intent to teach after student teaching was their intention to teach before student teaching. Differences in intentions to teach were observed at the three universities, and thus university was also predictive of final intent to teach.