How best to support new teachers in agriculture is the focus of research by Assistant Professor Richard Johnson at the University of Minnesota Crookston (UMN Crookston). Johnson recently received funding through the Grant-in-Aid of Research, Artistry, and Scholarship program (GIA) at the University of Minnesota.
Once at work in a school, many teachers have similar subject matter colleagues in the same department. This helps with social support needs at school. However, many agricultural education teachers are in single-teacher programs and experience limited social support.
Johnson’s research will examine support needs of early career agriculture teachers. “Research shows a significant number of public secondary educators leave the profession before reaching the fifth-year milestone,” Johnson says. “We want to find out why some teachers persist, and others choose to leave the field. Our goal at the University of Minnesota Crookston is to prepare our teachers for the classroom with tools for ongoing success.”
The project seeks to investigate the self-perceived support needs of agricultural education teachers in their first five years of employment. A research agenda that is both qualitative and quantitative will analyze perceived support offered early career agricultural education teachers and the desired support of these teachers.
Background
The Grant-in-Aid of Research, Artistry, and Scholarship program (GIA) promotes the research, scholarly, and artistic activities of faculty and supports academic excellence throughout the University.
Grant-in-Aid funds are used to support independent research, acting as seed money for developing projects to the point of attracting more complete, external funding.
