Encouraging Teacher Change within the Realities of School-based Agricultural Education: Lessons from Teachers’ Initial Use of Socioscientific Issues-based Instruction

Abstract

Calls for increased interdisciplinary education have led to the development of numerous teaching methods designed to help teachers provide meaningful experiences for their students. However, methods of guiding teachers in the successful adoption of innovative teaching methods are not firmly set. This qualitative study sought to better understand how school-based agricultural education teachers decide to adopt or discontinue a teaching innovation when introduced through ready-made lesson plans, which is currently a common practice of teaching method integration in SBAE. Constant comparative analysis unveiled themes within the reactions to the teaching method’s use, as well as how teacher actions to those reactions led to their ultimate adoption or discontinuance of the teaching method.