Western region student teachers perceptions of rural and urban agriscience programs

Agricultural Education is continually changing and its role in the urban school is becoming more important. An adequate number of agriscience teachers must be willing to teach within urban programs. In order to identify characteristics in recruiting agriscience teachers in urban programs a descriptive study was performed. Data collection took place during the months of August and September 2010 using a researcher designed questionnaire. The questionnaire was completed by 70 western region student teachers completing their programs in the AAAE Western region. Findings of this study concluded participants’ value location as an important factor when selecting their teaching position. The majority of participants experienced an agriscience program in a rural program and agreed they are receiving the correct preparation to teach in an urban program. Participants completing an agriscience program in rural and urban areas are willing to teach in either rural or urban programs. Of those desiring to teach in a specific program, the majority desire to teach in the type of program they experienced in high school; therefore most of the participants want to teach in rural programs. With this, we suggested the importance of creating awareness and encouraging students to learn about urban agricultural programs. Research needs to be conducted on how to influence those teachers to accept jobs in urban areas.