Describing the Deficiencies in Agricultural Teacher Preparation as Reported by Agricultural Educators in Different Career Phases

The shortage of teachers has plagued the agricultural education profession for decades. Traditionally, the agricultural teacher preparation program has been the most fruitful source of qualified agricultural educators. While the goal of the agricultural teacher preparation program has been to produce competent graduates, many preservice and induction phase educators who attended a teacher preparation program have reported that they were unprepared to implement various duties of an agricultural educator. This study sought to assess how agricultural educators in different career stages who had successfully completed a teacher preparation program perceived their level of preparedness during their induction phase. The first research objective determined that there were no statistical differences between the perceptions of agricultural educators in the induction and non-induction phases within the FFA/SAE, program management, and instructional constructs. The second research objective determined that the participating educators felt inadequately prepared to implement SAE-based programming and special education mandates in their classrooms. The results also suggested that agricultural educators felt very prepared in their attitudes toward students. Overall, it is recommended that teacher preparation programs ensure that preservice educators receive instruction on items they feel unprepared to implement and that pertinent professional development is offered to in-service agriculture educators.