Insights from the Frontlines: Evaluating Recent Teacher Preparation Graduates’ Satisfaction with their Pedagogical Content Knowledge

Emily Garcia; William Norris

doi:10.5032/jae.v66i2.3190

Authors

Emily Garcia New Mexico State University
William Norris New Mexico State University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0336-370X

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5032/jae.v66i2.3190

Keywords:

Agricultural Education, Teacher Preparation, Pedagogical Content Knowledge

Abstract

The lack of educator retention is one of the most significant threats to agricultural education’s impact. With approximately 41% of educators exiting the profession in their first five years of employment, many agricultural educators report experiencing difficulty teaching agriculture curriculum. Furthermore, many agricultural educators report difficulty taking the content knowledge they have developed and incorporating it into their instruction. This study aimed to assess early-career agricultural educator’s satisfaction with the pedagogical content knowledge they developed through their teacher preparation program. We utilized a phenomenological case study design to describe the lived experiences of the participating educators. We conducted fifteen semi-structured interviews with early-career educators to execute the study’s research objective. Upon the completion of the interviews, we believed that saturation had been met. We used an inductive coding process followed by open, axial, and theoretical coding to develop the themes and subthemes of this study. Overall, we found that the participating educators were satisfied with the pedagogical content knowledge they received from their teacher preparation program but felt they could have benefited from improvements to the curriculum. The main suggestions were to incorporate courses to help preservice teachers develop more pedagogical content knowledge, utilize FFA and SAE as teaching tools, and evaluate teacher preparation degree plans to ensure they meet students’ needs. Additionally, the participants recommended incorporating more early field experiences into the required degree plan to facilitate growth. We also recommend conducting qualitative and quantitative studies to further evaluate the pedagogical content knowledge development of preservice and early-career educators.

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