A Fish Out of Water

This analytical autoethnography uses the lived experience of a female-only agricultural mechanics training, coupled with reflective recall, to explore the impact of a gender-specific event on the researcher’s sense of self. The autoethnography research model, alternating between self-reflection and the data derived from field notes, interviews, conversations, and artifact analysis, provided the author with insights and discoveries that would have otherwise remained concealed. Relational models theory helps express the two emergent themes of feminine connectedness and the struggle with expressing femininity without losing credibility in the male-dominated agricultural education profession. Future research should explore ways to leverage these themes to create support mechanisms to keep female agriculture teachers in the classroom.