Kayla Gossett

Document Type

Honors Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

Date of Award

Spring 4-16-2025

Abstract

A middle school (MS) agricultural education program is the starting point for many students to explore agricultural industries and occupations associated with food, fiber and natural resources (National Council for Agricultural Education, 2002). “Middle school is an important time in the development of agricultural education students and plays an important role in increasing agricultural literacy in our society,” (Jones, Doss, and Rayfield, 2020). MS agricultural programs have been recognized since 1988 (Golden et al., 2014), yet there has been minimal research regarding these programs. This phenomenological study explored the experience(s) of School Based Agricultural Educators or SBAEs and examined how those teaching experiences influenced the participant’s view on teaching agriculture at the MS level. Purposive sampling techniques were utilized to attain a sample of five participants who have been teaching agriculture at the MS level in Texas. This research identified three common themes amongst MS SBAEs: Positive experiences with actively engaged students, opportunities for innovative teaching, and unique needs of middle school students. Participants in this study shared an overwhelmingly positive outlook on teaching MS agriculture and had a wealth of experiences associated with it. These themes show some of the opportunities that MS SBAEs can experience which the Self-Efficacy Theory states will promote high self-efficacy development. This directly impacts a person’s perceived self-efficacy which is the foundation of their inspiration, motivation, performance, accomplishments, and emotional well-being. These findings lead the researchers to highlight the need for undergraduate pre-service teacher preparation programs and professional development that draw attention to the cognitive and developmental differences found between middle school and high school students for both curriculum and experiential learning opportunities at the MS level. We recommend similar studies, both qualitative and quantitative, be replicated regionally and nationally to determine if other groups of MS SBAEs report similar experiences.

Advisor

Maggie Pfeiffer Salem

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Keywords

middle school agricultural education program;teaching experiences, self-efficacy;professional development

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