Factors Related to the Intent of Agricultural Educators to Adopt Integrated Agricultural Biotechnology Curriculum

Recent legislation encourages the integration of academic content in agricultural education. In North Carolina, high school agricultural education programs can now choose to offer a state adopted integrated biotechnology curriculum. Empirical evidence was needed to identify and describe factors related to the intent of agricultural educators to adopt this curriculum in order to assist teachers during this transition. North Carolina agricultural educators were randomly surveyed to determine their self-perceived level of knowledge, actual level of knowledge and perceived importance of integrated science competencies in the new North Carolina “Biotechnology and Agriscience Research” course. This descriptive and correlational study also described how agricultural educators perceived the course in fulfilling program needs, perceived barriers to teaching the course, and the likelihood of agricultural educators in North Carolina adopting the course. Exploratory research was conducted to identify factors that best predicted the intent of agricultural educators to adopt the course. Agricultural educators accurately perceive that they lack the knowledge to teach the Biotechnology and Agriscience Research course. The majority of North Carolina agricultural educators have not participated in training related to biotechnology. Therefore they are ill prepared to teach concepts related to this emerging technology. Agricultural educators support the importance of teaching biotechnology and recognize the benefits of integrated curriculum in agricultural education. Agricultural educators perceive that the exterior factors of funding, equipment and teacher knowledge are the largest barriers to adopting integrated science curriculum. The Biotechnology and Agriscience Research course has the necessary support of agricultural educators to propose its continued inclusion in the North Carolina Workforce Development program of studies. Teachers who are most likely to adopt the Biotechnology and Agriscience Research course have fewer years of teaching experience, have attended some biotechnology training and perceive integrated biotechnology curriculum will fulfill their agricultural education program needs. Introduction In recent years, curriculum integration of science and agriculture has accelerated due to the biological revolution that requires the agriculturist to understand more science. Martin, Rajasekaran & Vold (1989) reported that students of agriculture must learn the biosciences, as they are the foundation of the industry of agriculture. The integration of agriculture and science curriculum has also been inspired by educational reform legislation. Since the mid-1930s the United States Department of Education has endorsed the integration of vocational and academic studies (Moss, 1990). Horne and Key (1993) reported that biotechnology is one subject area that readily integrates science and agriculture. In 1999, North Carolina education and industry experts developed a course titled “Biotechnology and Agriscience Research” based on the standards identified in “The National Voluntary Occupational Skill Standards for an Agricultural Biotechnology Technician”. The Biotechnology and Agriscience Research course reflects the theory of the reinforcement model of integration by infusing academic content into vocational education curriculum. The National Agricultural Education Council sponsored the development of an accompanying curriculum guide titled “Biotechnology for Plants, Animals, and the Environment” that is now available to secondary agricultural education programs nationwide. Beginning in 2000-2001, North Carolina high schools will be able to offer a state adopted integrated agricultural biotechnology course that has been developed as a cooperative effort between industry and education. It is not known whether teachers in the state will adopt this innovative course as a part of their local course offerings. North Carolina agricultural educational consultants need empirical evidence to identify factors related to the intent of agricultural educators to adopt this curriculum in order to assist teachers in the future transition of curriculum adoption. Rudd and Hillison (1995) reported that data related to the adoption of agriscience curriculum could provide insight for agricultural education curriculum efforts in the future. Theoretical Framework The theoretical framework for this study was derived from a review of the existing literature regarding motivation theory. The intent of teachers to adopt integrated curriculum is directly related to this area of psychological theory. Finch, Schmidt and Faulkner (1992) emphasized the importance of motivational theory to the educational movement of curriculum integration when they stated, “teachers must ultimately have the need and desire to integrate vocational and academic education. You can lead teachers to school, but you cannot make them integrate” (p.11). Edwin Locke’s schema of motivation in Figure 1 was chosen as the theoretical framework for this study because it encompasses a combination of the most well-known and accepted motivation theories and puts them in a logical sequence. In this sequence, Locke (1991) hypothesizes that the motivation theories support one another and the weaknesses they possess when alone are diminished. Locke (1991) stated, “the field of work motivation has become increasingly confused over the past decades. The major cause of confusion has been a plethora of theories and paucity of frameworks for integrating them. A major but seldom-recognized reason for the difficulty is that most of the theories pertain to different aspects of the motivational sequence”(p.288). Motivational Needs The Motivation Core The Motivation Hub