Decision to Enter the Classroom as an Agriculture Teacher: An Exploratory Qualitative Investigation

Abstract

With the continued shortage of teachers in agricultural education, the teacher preparation faculty in agricultural education at Texas Tech University began a series of investigations evaluating the teacher preparation program. These evaluations sought to identify areas for improvement and determine if elements of the student teaching experience were barriers to entering the profession. This phenomenological study used semi-structured interviews of recent teacher certification program completers (n = 5) who made the choice to take teaching jobs in agriculture, attend graduate school, or take jobs outside agricultural education. Results indicate the experiences associated with student teaching and the people involved did not influence intentions to teach. The two students who made changes in their intentions to teach, expressed having positive student-teaching experiences and made their decision based on family and business influences outside the student teaching process.