Assessing School-based Agricultural Education Teacher Familiarity, Knowledge, and Perceptions of Supervised Agricultural Experience Categories

Changes in Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAEs) and a lack of SAE category knowledge have been identified as causes to declining SAE participation (Dyer & Osborne, 1995; Steel, 1997; Wilson & Moore, 2007). Recently, the National Council for Agricultural Education and the National FFA Organization have redefined SAE and created new categories for SAEs in an attempt to be more inclusive of agricultural projects and to increase participation. This descriptive study assessed (n=116) school-based agricultural education (SBAE) teachers’ knowledge in categorizing SAE scenarios into previous and new SAE categories. Teacher familiarity with old and new categories was determined as well as teacher practices and opinions on new categories. Results indicated teachers were more familiar with old SAE categories than new categories. SBAE teachers consistently scored lower on their ability to classify SAE scenarios with new SAE categories compared to old categories. Teachers thought new categories were more difficult to teach students and most teachers had not taught their students information on new categories. This led to the recommendation for streamlined communication between decision-making groups in the agricultural education community and SBAE teachers in the field. Various forms of professional development are needed for teachers in the area of SAE categorization.