Leadership Learning Opportunities in Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources Education: The Role of the Teacher

Abstract

Learning environments combining agriculture, food, natural resources, and leadership knowledge and skills are increasingly essential in preparing students for future success. School-based agricultural education offers a premier context in which to teach leadership within agriculture, food, and natural resources curriculum. However, providing students with learning experiences in agriculture, food, natural resources, and leadership requires willing and able teachers. In the current national study, the theory of planned behavior was operationalized to understand the role of school-based agriculture teachers in teaching leadership within agriculture, food, and natural resources curriculum. Teachers held a positive attitude toward the behavior, favorable subjective norms, confident perceptions of behavioral control, and knowledge of leadership. On average, school-based agricultural education teachers intended to teach leadership content in 28.49% of curriculum. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze a model of leadership teaching intentions in which attitude toward the behavior and subjective norms were statistically significant, positive predictors of intentions to teach leadership. Recommendations for research and application of findings are addressed.