Teaching Outside of the Margins: School-Based Agricultural Education Teachers’ Perspectives on Globally Competent Teaching During an International Experience

Abstract

Because of the need to produce more globally competent students, researchers have called for integrating global concepts into the agricultural education curriculum over the past decade. Despite this, many teachers have not been adequately prepared to facilitate such in practice. This investigation sought to examine [State] SBAE teachers’ perspectives on globally competent teaching during an international experience in Costa Rica. As a result of our analysis of the data, three themes emerged (1) teaching outside of the margins, (2) global storytelling, and (3) innovative global experiences. The themes narrated the ways in which the teachers in this study articulated how they intended to create globally competent students in SBAE as a result of their international experience. The results of this investigation also illuminated a critical implication for the discipline – if we more intimately connect the local to the global, perhaps SBAE could position itself to engage in discussions and address problems associated with diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) more profoundly. Moving forward, we recommend that teacher educators and state agricultural education leaders explore how international experiences might be used as an entry point for SBAE to engage in critical conversations and understand how issues of DEIB can be addressed more effectively.