Leadership Education Courses and Programs in Departments of Agricultural Education

This national study of post-secondary departments of agricultural education examined leadership and human resource management/development course offerings, course characteristics, future department plans, backgrounds of faculty, and related outreach activities. The majority of the courses were offered for undergraduate credit and were predominately required courses for agricultural education department majors. Nearly half of the departments offering these courses characterized their courses as nontraditional. Departments not offering leadership courses cited a lack of resources, institutional impediments and resistance, and lack of student demand as reasons for not offering the courses. Nearly half of the faculty teaching leadership education courses had traditional agricultural education backgrounds. “Workshops and seminars” was the most frequently cited setting for leadership education outreach. It was concluded that departments of agricultural education are becoming increasingly involved in development and delivery of leadership education courses and outreach, both at the undergraduate and graduate level. Recommendations from the study included a call for collaboration with other departments involved in leadership, specific faculty preparation and academic grounding in the research and behavioral foundations of leadership, and creation of programs with sound scholarship foundations.