| Summary: | The world is facing significant challenges as a result of societal practices. Many of those challenges are agricultural in nature and include worldwide food insecurity, intensified greenhouse gas emissions resulting in climate change, major losses in biodiversity, substantial pressure on natural resources, and increasingly antimicrobial-resistant pests and diseases. To address these challenges, the workforce of the agricultural system must continue improving, collaborating, innovating, and transforming at a global scale. The diversity of agricultural challenges calls for a diverse workforce with science skills as well as cultural competencies.
Agricultural educators and practitioners are consistently concerned with strengthening the relationship of youth and agricultural career choice. The field of agricultural education is also working to ensure that youth who choose agriculture have the knowledge, skills, and competencies necessary to address agricultural challenges. However, youth have steadily chosen careers outside of agriculture, leaving thousands of jobs available.
Researchers have explored many reasons why youth may not choose agriculture, though few have considered aspects of identity or have explored factors that impact perceptions and thoughts of agriculture in depth. The overall purpose of this research was to explore how aspects of identity, including occupational identity status, inform agricultural career interest and choice; and to understand youth perceptions and thoughts of agriculture within a four-week agricultural education program. The purpose was achieved using research questions and objectives for each individual study. Data were collected using inventories, surveys, group interviews, and blog post assignments to describe participants. Data analysis included thematic analysis and descriptive statistical analysis. Findings show that the participants often had a more negative perception of agriculture prior to the program and expanded their view of agriculture after learning more about the industry. There are many factors that shape perceptions of agriculture, including identity characteristics, learning experiences, and contextual factors. The findings have implications for the field of agricultural education and the entire agricultural industry. At the conclusion of each study within this research, recommendations for agricultural educators, practitioners, and researchers were made. The recommendations include developing and implementing agricultural education programs that serve underrepresented populations in agriculture and conducting research to investigate ill-explored areas that emerged as findings from the research. === Doctor of Philosophy === The world is facing many problems in the agricultural industry. These problems relate to food, land, and climate – amongst others. These problems must be addressed; and to do so, there must be a workforce in the agriculture industry that is skilled and competent. Agricultural educators and practitioners are tasked with preparing the agricultural workforce and have a continuous mission to encourage youth to choose agricultural careers. A problem is that youth are largely not choosing agricultural careers, and many jobs in agriculture go unfilled. Researchers have explored reasons why youth largely choose careers in other industries; the reasons include different factors such as opinions of parents and the exposure to agricultural careers.
This research explores additional reasons why youth may not choose a career in agriculture and explores previously known reasons in the context of the 2019 Virginia's Governor's School for Agriculture program. The overall purpose of this research is to explore additional reasons for career choice in agriculture, including aspects of identity. The overall purpose of this research was also to explore youths' perceptions and thoughts of agriculture in-depth. The purpose was achieved by asking a series of research questions and by stating a series of objectives. The research questions and objectives were addressed using data collection methods of group interviews, blog post assignments, inventories, and surveys. The data that was collected was analyzed using thematic analysis and descriptive statistical analysis. The findings from this research show that there are many reasons why youth who were participants of the 2019 Virginia's Governor's School for Agriculture program think about and perceive agriculture. The reasons relate to identity characteristics, learning experiences, and contextual factors. These reasons also influence how youth choose to be involved in agriculture. The findings have implications for the field of agricultural education and the entire agricultural industry.
For each article within this research, recommendations for agricultural educators, practitioners, and researchers were made. These include expanding the reach of agricultural education and further exploring findings that emerged from the research.
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