Adjusting, Appeasing, and Rearranging: How Agriculture Teachers Reconcile the Demands of the Profession

Authors

Haley Q. Traini, Oregon State University,Follow
Becky Haddad, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Josh Stewart, Oregon State UniversityFollow
Jonathan J. Velez, Oregon State UniversityFollow

Date of this Version

2021

Citation

Journal of Agricultural Education, 62(2), 167-184

https://doi.org/10.5032/jae.2021.02167

Comments

Copyright © 2021 Journal of Agricultural Education, a publication of the American Association for Agricultural Education. Used by permission.

Abstract

A teacher shortage continues to plague the SBAE profession. While this shortage has been quantified and explored from the perspective of individual teachers, little research has taken a systemic approach to the problem of the SBAE teacher shortage. We posit the teacher shortage problem as inextricably linked to a convoluted job description and growing list of competencies required to be a successful agriculture teacher. The teachers in this qualitative study shared their navigation of the process of reconciliation within their landscapes of practice and regimes of competence. Using hermeneutic phenomenology, themes of adjusting, rearranging, and appeasing emerged as the key ways in which SBAE teachers reconciled the competing demands of the profession. We discuss these findings specific to these participants, but also in terms of implications and recommendations for the broader profession, administrators, alumni groups, researchers, and teacher educators, noting especially the need for change at the professional level to reduce the reconciliation load on practicing SBAE teachers.