AGRICULTURAL LITERACY OF MISSOURI SECONDARY SCHOOL EDUCATORS

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess secondary educators' knowledge of and attitude toward agriculture. The population consisted of teachers and administrators in 245 secondary schools in Missouri that offered an Agricultural Education program as part of the curriculum. The sample consisted of 200 randomly selected schools and a cohort group of educators representing: administrators, agriculture teachers, language arts teachers, mathematics teachers, science teachers, and social science teachers. Data collection instruments included 35 items to assess respondents' knowledge of agriculture and 35 items to assess their attitude toward agriculture. Usable responses were collected from 616 educators representing 146 schools. Data analysis revealed that agriculture teachers were the most knowledgeable and had the most positive attitude toward agriculture. Language arts and mathematics teachers were the least knowledgeable and had the least positive attitude toward agriculture. However, each of the educator groups surveyed were judged to be knowledgeable of and had a positive attitude toward the industry of agriculture. Based on the findings of this study, it was recommended that pre-service and in-service programs be conducted to promote strategies to integrate agricultural concepts and illustrations into other courses in the secondary school curriculum.