The Influence of Foundational and Expressed Values on Personal Behaviors of Teachers

As we press forward into the new millennium, agricultural educators across the country are continuing their quest to reshape agricultural education, to develop new approaches to teaching and learning that are more appropriate and effective for the 21st century. Our rapidly changing world demands an agricultural education system that equips children with the tools and skills they will need to succeed in a multicultural democracy. While many initiatives within agricultural education (National Research Council, 1988; Reinventing Agricultural Education for the Year 2020) have addressed the need to advance agricultural education in public schools, much work is still needed. Service learning may hold the key to connecting future generations with their diverse communities and democratic society at large. The purpose of this article was to outline the extent to which service learning can advance cultural competence within agricultural education. Introduction/Theoretical Framework Over 90% of Americans believe there is a significant “moral decline” in our country (Gough, 1998). In a recent poll of adult Americans conducted by The Wall Street Journal (1998), “moral decline” was cited as the biggest problem America faces in the next twenty years. This decline is not going unnoticed. According to Nussel (1994), almost all societal problems can be reduced to the failure to do something, and people make mistakes as a result of inaccurate information or a lack of information. Since the school transmits knowledge, skills and values regarded as critical within the society, it can be held accountable when problems arise (Nussel). Great strides are being made in incorporating moral education into the whole school environment, including the agricultural education curriculum. However, the instruction of value education is not clearly defined in the current American educational system. Educators have realized for some time that what a student accomplishes depends on his/her attitude, philosophy and value judgments (Lockaby & Vaughn, 1999). According to Pullias and Lockhart (1963) educators must recognize that students possess value systems that influence the teaching/learning process, which in turn provides feedback to their individual system. It is part of the learning process to help students develop and utilize their individual value system. However, students are not the only ones to possess a value system. The teacher behaviors in the school setting is largely based on their personal characteristics and the school characteristics (Pullias & Lockhart). The model of the effects of personal characteristics and school characteristics on teacher behavior depicts factors that affect teachers’ behavior in the school setting (Figure 1). The personal characteristics sphere is a modification of Fessler’s Teacher Career Cycle Model (Burden, 1990) in which he described how personal environment and organizational environment influences the career cycle. Haygood, Baker, Hogg, & Bullock The Influence of Foundation... Journal of Agricultural Education 55 Volume 45, Number 1, 2004 Figure 1. Effects of personal characteristics and school characteristics on teacher behavior In the teacher behavior model, school characteristics refer to those attributes that affect the overall climate of the school and consequently influence teacher behavior. Fessler refers to these loosely as management style, societal expectations, regulations, and public trust (Burden, 1990). Examples of school characteristics include: school location, school population, size of program/class, administration, community, and legislative agenda. Personal characteristics include demographics of the teacher (gender and age); educational experience factors refer to the number of years teaching (specifically the number of years teaching agriculture), and the teacher education program that prepared them for entry into the teaching profession. Family and life stages refer to the personal traits of the teachers (Burden). The value system, or more specifically the foundational and expressed values, refers to the character of the teacher. According to Phipps and Osborne (1988), teachers of agriculture must possess unquestionable character as it is essential to be an effective teacher. In the foundational and expressed values model proposed by Lockaby, Baker, and Hogg (2001) (Figure 2), values that are defined as foundational are those values a person must develop before other values can be expressed. For example a person must have a foundation of courtesy before it can be expressed as respect and tolerance; honesty is the foundation for truth; the expressions of commitment, self-respect, and service must first have the foundation of honor. The foundational values do have some overlap when they are expressed. For example kindness can be expressed as caring, and generosity can be expressed with service (an overlap with honor), caring (overlap with kindness) and friendship (an overlap with loyalty.) The foundational value of loyalty is expressed as friendship and trust, while diligence, prudence, and responsibility express the foundational value of perseverance.