Influence Of The Relationship Between The Student Teacher And Cooperating Teacher On Student Teacher'S Decision To Enter Teaching

The purpose of the study was to determine if the student teachers' perceptions of the student teacher/cooperating teacher relationship is predictive of the decision to enter the teaching profession. The target population of this study consisted of preservice agricultural education students at Texas A&M University. The accessible sample consisted of student teachers in agricultural education at Texas A&M University in fall 2004, a group of 33 student teachers. Multiple regression was used to build a model that explained the greatest amount of variability in the student teacher's decision to enter teaching, based on the student teacher perceptions of the cooperating teacher and other suspected predictor variables. The typical student teacher in agricultural education was a 22 year old white female completing an undergraduate degree. It was also concluded that the majority of student teachers had not had full time agricultural employment. Approximately one-third of the participants indicated that they had mostly avocational work experience (assisting a friend 'feeding cows" on an occasional weekend or planting/caring for a garden). The majority of student teachers had at least four semesters (two years) of high school agricultural science classes. However, nine participants had none. It was concluded that the student teaching/cooperating teacher relationship is not predictive of decision to teach. However, semesters of high school agricultural sciences courses completed is predicative of decision to teach. The best model explained 18.3% of the variance. Introduction/Theoretical Framework In 2001, there were 857 newly qualified agricultural education graduates (Camp, Broyles, & Skelton, 2002). In that same year, 798 new agricultural science teachers were needed to fill vacant teaching positions. Those numbers would suggest that there is not a shortage of agricultural science teachers. However, only 59% (509) of the graduates chose to enter the teaching profession. This divergence (798 vacancies, 509 teachers) created a net deficit in the number of qualified people to fill teaching vacancies. Teacher educators are challenged with the responsibility of determining the reasons that such a large percentage of students completing teacher education programs chose not to enter the teaching profession. Possible solutions to the problem include addressing the concerns related to the quality of the student teaching experience and the effectiveness of the cooperating teacher. Given the plethora of available majors that capture the human dimension of agriculture (agricultural communications, agricultural leadership, extension education, etc.), it is reasonable to assume that students enrolled in an agricultural education (teacher preparation) program have some interest in teaching. However, as reported earlier, many do not enter teaching. Teacher educators need to identify why students enrolled in teacher education programs are completing student teaching but then choosing not to enter the profession. Researchers (Briers & Byler, 1979; Byler & Byler, 1984; Schumacher & Johnson, 1990; Schumann, 1969) posited that the