Stability in a Transitional Time: Factors Contributing to Agricultural Educator’s Decision to Remain in the Profession

Abstract

Agricultural education’s most pressing issue is a lack of qualified classroom teachers. In 2020-2021, 30 states reported the loss of over 70 agricultural education positions, with many schools closing these positions due to inadequate staffing. Furthermore, in 2021-2022, there were 1,680 agricultural education vacancies nationwide and only 789 graduates of license-eligible agricultural education teacher preparation programs. The teacher attrition rate is cited as one of the main contributors to the shortage of agricultural educators. While many studies have examined why teachers leave the profession, the purpose of this study was to ascertain the impacts of various personal, employment, and instructional factors on the decision of agricultural educators to remain in the profession. It was determined that participating agricultural educators valued all individual personal, employment, and instructional factors as Somewhat Impactful or Moderately Impactful in their decision to remain in the profession. Furthermore, the results from the Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) suggested that Florida agricultural educators regarded the impact of personal factors and employment factors statistically more in their decision to remain in the profession than agricultural educators in Georgia. A Principal Component Analysis was used to assess correlations between each personal, employment, and instructional factor and reduce the data to the most influential components. This analysis reduced the data from the original twenty-two factors to seven principal components: 1.) Teacher Support 2.) Working with Students 3.) Resource Management 4.) Retirement 5.) Location of Employment 6.) Personal/Family Expectations 7.) Professional Development.