Source: UNIV OF IDAHO submitted to NRP
INCREASING AGRICULTURAL TEACHER CANDIDATE PROFICIENCY IN FOOD SECURITY EDUCATION
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
OTHER GRANTS
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1026608
Grant No.
2021-38414-34960
Cumulative Award Amt.
$298,425.00
Proposal No.
2021-03774
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2021
Project End Date
Jun 30, 2024
Grant Year
2021
Program Code
[SPECA]- Secondary Challenge Program
Recipient Organization
UNIV OF IDAHO
875 PERIMETER DRIVE
MOSCOW,ID 83844-9803
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
American students lack access to education related to global food security. The future workforce in agriculture will need global competency skills to compete in an ever-expanding global agriculture industry. The purpose of this project is to increase global competency for both preservice agricultural educators and secondary agricultural education students (grades 9-12). The program will allow 16preservice teachers per year to undergo immersive experiences with the global network of the World Food Prize Foundation and then translate their knowledge into a global agriculture competency curriculum that will be delivered in secondary classrooms by program participants. Program participants gain targeted curriculum development and instructional skills within the context of global agriculture, resulting in not only teachers who are better prepared to competently instruct students in global agriculture knowledge, but who are better prepared to teach in all agricultural education content areas. The project will result in development of publically-accessible lesson plans in global agriculture and preservice teachers who are competent in integrating global components into their lessons once they enter a classroom. We anticipate increased global competency for both preservice teachers and the secondary students involved in the program, many of whom are in rural areas where access to globally-focused curriculum is disproportionately lacking. The project will also provide increased access to global agriculture curriculum for all agricultural educators in the country.
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
50%
Applied
50%
Developmental
0%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
70460993020100%
Knowledge Area
704 - Nutrition and Hunger in the Population;

Subject Of Investigation
6099 - People and communities, general/other;

Field Of Science
3020 - Education;
Goals / Objectives
We will approach the project with attention to addressing four major challenged in secondary agricultural education programs:Challenge 1: Teacher Global Content Knowledge.Challenge 2: Secondary Student Global Content Knowledge.Challenge 3: Using Best Practices to Implement Curriculum.Challenge 4: Equity in Access to Globally-Centered Curriculum.The purpose of this project is to significantly enhance the preparation of future agricultural educators by providing immersive high-impact experiences in global food security as a vehicle to increase teaching skills and global competency. We have two primary outcomes: increase teaching skills in future teachers, and increase global competency for teachers and students.Objective 1: Increase global competency related to agriculture of teacher candidates participating in the program.Objective 2: Increase global competency related to agriculture of secondary students instructed through the program.Objective 3: Increase teaching competency for teacher candidates participating in the program.Objective 4: Recruit academically talented participants with priority given to participants from minority and/or low SES background.
Project Methods
The program allows preservice agricultural educators to gain global competencies, curriculum development skills, and instructional experience through a one-year immersive experience culminating in participants instructing global competency lessons to secondary students in a public high school setting. The program allows secondary students access to global competency knowledge and experiences.There are six main stages within each cohort year of the program: application, pre-immersion, global agriculture, and pedagogical immersion (GAPI), curriculum development and review, teaching immersion, and program reflection and review. Each of these stages is outlined below:Stage One: Application and OnboardingPotential participants will be selected through an application process hosted by each institution. Students in their sophomore or junior year in an Agricultural Education major will be eligible to apply. Details of the application process are included below:All agricultural education students at UIdaho and Penn State who have completed their first full year of courses (sophomore standing or higher) are eligible to apply.Priority will be given to 3rd year agricultural education majors (teacher candidates). Prioritizing students with junior standing allows us to build upon prior knowledge gained in lower-division classes.Eight (8) teacher candidates from each participating institution will be selected based on academic performance and stated desire to complete the program, with preference given to students for minority and low-income classificationsApplications will be ranked by educators outside of partnering institutionsUpon completion of a contract of commitment, participants will also enroll in a one-credit directed-study course at their respective institution. Having participants enroll in a course will allow faculty PIs to set weekly meeting times with students to discuss program requirements and immersion activity logistics.Stage Two: Pre-immersion Virtual MeetingIn September of each cohort year, a virtual welcome meeting will take place. During this meeting, co-PIs will guide participants through the following tasks:Outline program norms and set expectations for completing the program.Participants will be oriented to the mission of the World Food Prize Foundation guided by Mr. Keegan Katzusky and guided through discussion of critical thinking questions related to the impact of global food security.Participants will be assigned a partner from the other institution (i.e. UIdaho student assigned to partner with a Penn State student)Participants will receive pre-work to complete before the global agriculture and pedagogical immersion (GAPI) including curriculum planning learning modules and readings on global competencyStage Three: Global Agriculture and Pedagogical ImmersionParticipants will come together for a comprehensive curriculum design and global competency workshop held in conjunction with the World Food Prize Foundation's Norman E. Borlaug International SymposiumThe event, which takes place in Des Moines, Iowa, and regularly attracts over 1,000 participants from more than 50 countries, has been referred to as "the premier conference in the world on global agriculture." During the symposium, participants will complete the following activities:Attend panel discussions, keynote speeches, and roundtable discussions related to global food security and nutrition.Engage with PIs Falk and Smith to receive a comprehensive training related to curriculum design and instruction.Receive an orientation to the global agriculture competency curriculum developed by our global agricultural curriculum consultant (Olivia Murphy-Sweet).In partner teams, participants will develop a lesson to compliment the four lessons in the global agricultural competency curriculumParticipants will complete daily reflection prompts related to their personal learning and growth in both pedagogical and global agriculture knowledge.Participants will receive a travel stipend to offset some costs of attendance. The World Food Prize will coordinate workshop rooms, registration, and other onsite logistics.Stage Four: Curriculum Development & Review Virtual MeetingBetween the end of the Borlaug International Symposium and end of November each cohort year. Participants will work with their partner and secondary teacher mentor to complete the global agriculture lesson assigned during the GAPI program. In December of each cohort year, participants will come together to share the lessons created with their partner and to practice teaching components of the global agriculture competency lessons. Details of lesson creation and the lesson presentation meeting include to following considerations:Participants will submit their completed lesson plan to their mentor for feedback and guidance. They will submit revised plans based on mentor feedback to the faculty PIs.Present their self-created lessons to other cohort members in their entirety. Feedback forms will be provided for peers and faculty PIs to provide feedback to each partner team.Participants will practice teaching the existing four lessons. PIs, other cohort members, and Olivia Murphy-Sweet will be on hand to provide feedback and guidanceParticipants will attend the Global Learning in Agriculture conference, held in February, to discuss their curriculum development process with their in-service teacher mentor.Stage Five: Teaching Immersion ExperienceParticipants will have the opportunity to spend one week teaching at a secondary school. Cohort members will complete the teaching immersion experience with the same class of students for the Monday-Friday coinciding with their institutions' Spring Break in March. The details of the immersion experience include the following:Participants will rank their location selections at the December lesson presentation meeting. PIs Falk and Foster will coordinate final selection and availability of cooperating locations.Participants will learn their final immersion location by January 15th each cohort year.During the immersion, participants will teach the four lessons in the global agriculture competency curriculum along with the fifth lesson created with their partner.Participants will complete their teaching immersion over the course of five school days in one secondary agriculture class.To maximize program budget, locations will be selected so that two schools are close to each other.While on-site, participants will receive daily feedback from agricultural educators at their location and will complete daily video reflections of their experience.Stage Six: Reflection and Wrap-Up Virtual MeetingIn May each cohort year, participants will join in a virtual meeting to debrief their teaching immersion and discuss program impacts. Details of this meeting include:Discussion of what was learned about teaching and how students learn.Discussion of the impact of teaching global agriculture concepts.Completion of program post evaluations and feedback from participants.Development of a "best practices for early field experiences" guidebook to be distributed to teacher educators and other teacher candidates in agricultural education.Group programmatic thank you and appreciation documents.Review of daily reflections during teaching immersion experience.At the completion of Cohort 1 (2021-2022 academic year), PIs will meet to discuss feedback from program participants, in-service teacher mentors, global agriculture curriculum consultant, and teaching immersion site teachers. Based on feedback from stakeholders, adjustments and modifications to details of the program will be implemented before announcing participants for Cohort 2.

Progress 09/01/21 to 06/30/24

Outputs
Target Audience:There are three target audiences for this work. 1- Preservice agricultural educators: This group are undergraduate students who are interested in educating secondary students about agriculture. Most of these students are enrolled in a B.S. degree program in agricultural education. 2- Secondary agriculture students: These are students enrolled in secondary agricultural science and technology classes. Through the program they receive instruction on global agriculture and agricultural markets. 3- Secondary agricultural educators: These individuals work with the preservice teachers to provide access to students in their classes and serve as mentors for the preservice teachers. During this reporting period, the project served 18 Undergraduate students 819 secondary students through the World Food Prize Foundation Global Youth Insitutute Approximately 1200secondary students directly through the spring immersion programming Approximately 28,000 secondary students through the expansion of the curriculum through the Global Teach Ag Network Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project has yielded professional developmente workshops for more than 400 attendees in this reporting period. Workshops were held in Idaho, Pennsylvania on a regional level, and to both the North American College Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) and National Association of Agricultural Educators (NAAE) annual meetings. Total exposure through the professional development outreach was approximately 800 individuals. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The information on the program is disseminated through the Global Teach Agriculture Network website and community of practice channels. This network has enrollment from more than 5000 educators across the globe. Dissemination also occurred through the NAAE andNACTA workshops. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Objective 1: Increase global competency related to agriculture of teacher candidates participating in the program. Based on pre and post program data, overall global citizenship for participants increased. T-tests of pre and post data showed significant increases in overall global citizenship, global agricultural awareness, and global advocacy On a per-participant basis, n = 16 of the N = 18 participants had increases in all constructs of global citizenship. Objective 2: Increase global competency related to agriculture of secondary students instructed through the program. More than 1200 secondary students were exposed to the global agriculture curriculum developed through the program. Of these students, more than 1100 completed the assessments for the curriculum with 80% or higher. The pre and post test global citizenship scores for secondary students showed an overall increase in all components of global citizenship based on the Boix-Masilla model, with the largest increase in the Global Agricultural Awareness category. Objective 3: Increase teaching competency for teacher candidates participating in the program. The average retention rate for preservice agricultural educators on an annual basis is 60-70%. For participants in this program, N = 16 of the N = 18 participants in this reporting period remained in the major. Objective 4: Recruit academically talented participants with priority given to participants from minority and/or low SES background. Priority was given to students from underrepresented populations.

Publications

  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Cherry, A., Smith, K., Foster, D. D., Falk, J., Foster, M., Voelckers, G. (2023). How do preservice teachers reflect on global food security education? Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for International Agricultural and Extension Education, Guelph, Canada.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Cherry, A., Smith, K., Foster, D. D., Falk, J., Foster, M., Voelckers, G. (2023). A goal without a plan is a wish: Assessing the Global Orientation to Agricultural Learning? Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for International Agricultural and Extension Education, Guelph, Canada.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Letot, C., Foster, D., Miller Foster, M., Falk, J., Smith, K., (2022) Developing Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Global Agriculture: Assessing Perceptions of Global Issues in Pre-Service Educators in the GOALS Program. North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture, Wooster, OH, United States


Progress 09/01/22 to 08/31/23

Outputs
Target Audience:There are three target audiences for this work. 1- Preservice agricultural educators: This group are undergraduate students who are interested in educating secondary students about agriculture. Most of these students are enrolled in a B.S. degree program in agricultural education. 2- Secondary agriculture students: These are students enrolled in secondary agricultural science and technology classes. Through the program they receive instruction on global agriculture and agricultural markets. 3- Secondary agricultural educators: These individuals work with the preservice teachers to provide access to students in their classes and serve as mentors for the preservice teachers. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project has yielded professional developmente workshops for more than 400 attendees in this reporting period. Workshops were held in Idaho, Pennsylvania on a regional level, and to both the North American College Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) and National Association of Agricultural Educators (NAAE) annual meetings. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The information on the program is disseminated through the Global Teach Agriculture Network website and community of practice channels. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We plan on continuing the program with attention to minor improvements in recruitment, curriculum development, and cohort building.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Objective 1: Increase global competency related to agriculture of teacher candidates participating in the program. Based on pre and post program data, overall global citizenship for participants increased. T-tests of pre and post data showed significant increases in overall global citizenship, global agricultural awareness, and global advocacy On a per-participant basis, n = 16 of the N = 18 participants had increases in all constructs of global citizenship. Objective 2: Increase global competency related to agriculture of secondary students instructed through the program. More than 1200 secondary students were exposed to the global agriculture curriculum developed through the program. Of these students, more than 1100 completed the assessments for the curriculum with 80% or higher. The pre and post test global citizenship scores for secondary students showed an overall increase in all components of global citizenship based on the Boix-Masilla model, with the largest increase in the Global Agricultural Awareness category. Objective 3: Increase teaching competency for teacher candidates participating in the program. The average retention rate for preservice agricultural educators on an annual basis is 60-70%. For participants in this program, N = 16 of the N = 18 participants in this reporting period remained in the major. Objective 4: Recruit academically talented participants with priority given to participants from minority and/or low SES background. Priority was given to students from underrepresented populations.

Publications

  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Cherry, A., Smith, K., Foster, D. D., Falk, J., Foster, M., Voelckers, G. (2023). A goal without a plan is a wish: Assessing the Global Orientation to Agricultural Learning? Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for International Agricultural and Extension Education, Guelph, Canada.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Letot, C., Foster, D., Miller Foster, M., Falk, J., Smith, K., (2022) Developing Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Global Agriculture: Assessing Perceptions of Global Issues in Pre-Service Educators in the GOALS Program. North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture, Wooster, OH, United States
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Cherry, A., Smith, K., Foster, D. D., Falk, J., Foster, M., Voelckers, G. (2023). How do preservice teachers reflect on global food security education? Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for International Agricultural and Extension Education, Guelph, Canada.


Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22

Outputs
Target Audience:During the reporting period ending August 2022, we were able to reach: 18Undergraduate students 783secondary students through the World Food Prize Foundation Global Youth Insitutute Approximately 1200 secondary students directly through the spring immersion programming Approximately 24,000 secondary students through the expansion of the curriculum through the Global Teach Ag Network Changes/Problems:The limitations for COVID travel prevented the fall immersion from occurring as we wished, but we were able to modify instruction to adjust for the decrease in international participants. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project has been featured routinely in the Global Teach Ag Network community. We have provided access to the curriculum and conducted multiple trainings in orer to dissmeinate the global agriculture currculum to interested parties. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Our main outlet has been the program website hosted through the global teach agriculture website, we have also disseminated information through professional research conferences, as guest speakers for several organizations, and through our involvement in the perpetual learning community hosted through the GTAN platform. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We plan on continuing with Cohort 2 in the 2022-23 academic yar, making modifications as noted through the program review and evaluation process.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Accomplishments are listed by objective below: Objective 1: Increase global competency related to agriculture of teacher candidates participating in the program. Empirical evidence substantiates growth in global citizenship for teacher candidates Qualitative analysis of program materials (interviews, video and written reflections, porgram evaluation data) substantiatesgrowth in global citizenship for teacher candidates Objective 2: Increase global competency related to agriculture of secondary students instructed through the program. Empirical evidence substantiates growth in global citizenship for secondary students Qualitative analysis of program materials (interviews, video and written reflections, program evaluation data) substantiatesgrowth in global citizenship for teacher candidates Objective 3: Increase teaching competency for teacher candidates participating in the program. Empirical evidence substantiates growth in Teacher Self-Efficacy for members of the project Objective 4: Recruit academically talented participants with priority given to participants from minority and/or low SES background. Of students participating in Cohort 1 (N = 18), six were classified as low SES background based on university metrics, three were from underrepresented populations

Publications

  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Cherry, A., Smith, K., Foster, D. D., Falk, J., Foster, M., Voelckers, G. (2023). How do preservice teachers reflect on global food security education? Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for International Agricultural and Extension Education, Guelph, Canada.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Cherry, A., Smith, K., Foster, D. D., Falk, J., Foster, M., Voelckers, G. (2023). A goal without a plan is a wish: Assessing the Global Orientation to Agricultural Learning? Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for International Agricultural and Extension Education, Guelph, Canada.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Voelckers, G., Cherry, A. Smith, K., Falk, J., Foster, D., Foster, M. (2023). Developing Future Educators through an Educationally Purposeful High Impact Experience: A Phenomenological Examination. Research poster presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Agricultural Education, Raleigh, North Carolina.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Letot, C., Foster, D., Miller Foster, M., Falk, J., Smith, K., (2022) Developing Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Global Agriculture: Assessing Perceptions of Global Issues in Pre-Service Educators in the GOALS Program. North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture, Wooster, OH, United States.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Falk, J., Foster, D.D., Smith, K. L., & Miller Foster, M.J. (2022). Utilizing High Impact Domestic Immersion Experiences: Improving Current Student Capacity and Creating Future Students in Agriculture. North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture, Wooster, OH.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Smith, K.L., Miller Foster, M.J., Foster, D., & Falk, J. (2022). Undergraduate Student Reflections on Cross-institutional High Impact Experience: A Content Analysis. North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture, Wooster, OH.