15 pages, Agriculture is a significant contributor to the global economy and critical for future food and fibre production. To maximise the industry efficiencies and improve sustainability, a knowledgeable workforce is essential. Today’s school-aged youth will be the next generation agriculture workforce. However, there is concern that today’s youth are more detached from agriculture than ever before, viewing the industry as an unattractive career prospect and possessing low levels of agricultural literacy. Using a qualitative approach, this research presents the results from an open-response survey item asking Australian primary and secondary students to ‘list three words you think of when you hear the word ‘agriculture’’. Focus groups with Australian primary and secondary teachers were also conducted to explore these findings. Overall, students appear to have what can be described as a conventional understanding of agriculture as it relates to traditional farming, particularly animal production. However, students appeared to have a lower level of understanding and perception of the industry in less-traditional settings, including modern careers and the technologies involved. Improved agricultural education in Australia, including both formal and informal programs on possible career paths and technology adoption in the industry is recommended to support knowledge development of the modern sector to attract the next generation workforce.
24 pages, The central research question that guided this study was: how does the framing of written content on Facebook influence public perception of information regarding the management of wild horses and burros? This research was conducted using content analysis to examine 136 Facebook posts of six organizations communicating about the wild horse and burro controversy and 8,295 comments made by individuals to the organization’s posts. There were eight major themes that emerged from the data, organized by the interaction of three frames: organization frame, audience frame, and organization-audience interaction frame. Organization frame themes included: organization positionality and its influence on framing posts for emotional appeal and audience action, and organization post style, post frequency, and response frequency and its influence on audience reception of the issued. Audience frame themes included: action-oriented responses, emotional responses, government responses, and management-related responses. Organization-audience interaction frame themes included: the influence of organization comments on audience’s perception of the issue, and misinformation concerns.. These themes provide insight into how organizations and individuals are communicating about the wild horse and burro controversy using social media and illuminate opportunities for further research into social media communications to positively impact agricultural literacy. Recommendations for practice include: supplying necessary information to social media instead of relying on the audience to click links, keeping the perceived-cost and investment of requested audience participation low to encourage activism, and strategic planning regarding the frequency and types of post to maximize audience engagement.
14 pages., The 4-H Youth Development program prohibits all forms of discrimination which includes disability. 4-H Extension professionals provide the essential interface between Extension and the local community to create an inclusive environment for all youth, including those with disabilities, that is welcoming and accessible. Attitudes and self-efficacy for working with youth who have disabilities impact how well 4-
H delivers positive youth development programs. The purpose of this study was to determine state-wide 4-H Extension professionals’ attitudes, self-efficacy, and perceptions of inclusion toward youth with disabilities. In addition, the researchers sought to examine their use of a training program to better serve youth with disabilities. All 4-H Extension professionals in Ohio were surveyed (N = 135) with 71
responding (response rate of 53%). Results indicated the attitudes of Extension professionals for accepting of and feeling comfortable around youth with disabilities was overwhelmingly positive. They also perceived that youth with disabilities felt that they were included in 4-H activities. For self-efficacy,
4-H professionals reported they could effectively provide inclusive opportunities for youth with disabilities and adapt their level of instruction, take extra time, and pay attention to the needs of youth
with disabilities. However, about a third of the respondents somewhat or strongly agreed that their workload would increase by having youth with disabilities in their organization. The disability training program was used by over three-fourths of the 4-H professionals and helped them to engage with parents to learn more about their children with disabilities. The program also improved accommodations and
creating a more inclusive 4-H environment.
17 pages, Environmental education (EE) programs, when combined with human-wildlife interactions (HWI), can trigger emotions, an essential part of attitudes that influence pro-environmental behaviors (PEB). We used participant observation and a post-event evaluation survey to investigate emotional response to HWI among participants from marine educational programs at the University of Georgia Marine Education Center and Aquarium, Savannah, GA. We found that during HWI participants demonstrated positive (e.g., empathy) and negative emotions (e.g., frustration) with animals, including misconceptions and negative perceptions toward snakes and horseshoe crabs. In addition, outdoor exploration, contact with wildlife (direct or indirect), biofacts exhibitions and live animal presentations were the practices that most engaged participants in the programs, indicating that animals (e.g., turtles and crabs) can increase participants’ interest in educational activities. By incorporating wildlife in EE practices, educators can engage individuals in activities and stimulate their emotional attachment to animals, which can encourage changes in perceptions, leading to PEBs necessary for environmental conservation.
19 pages, Consumers’ perceptions of the terminology used on food production labels may lead to a perceived risk, which influences their grocery shopping decisions. Risk perception is the consumers’ belief that he or she may be exposed to something that is harmful or uncertain. Women are more aware of food labels due to their perceived risk associated with health and the environment. This study used Q methodology to describe a variety of viewpoints related to women’s grocery shopping decisions. Using a Q set of 36 statements, 18 women sorted based on the condition of instruction, “How do you make food decisions?” Factor scores, field notes, and post-sort interviews were used to interpret the arrays as the Frugal Shopper, the Price Conscious Shopper, and the Engaged Shopper. The Frugal Shopper was interpreted to be an economical shopper with little concern for food production methods. The Price Conscious Shopper is concerned for the effect on various production methods, but price is the main priority. The Engaged Shopper is willing to pay higher prices to have more choices when grocery shopping. Improved communication and a deeper understanding of consumers’ perceptions of food labels may help decrease the perceived risk associated with various food production methods.
18 pages., via online journal., Meeting the demands of a proficient scientific workforce depends on students’ communication skill preparation. To describe students’ self-perceptions of their communication skills, we surveyed 315 students in Texas A&M University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Participants noted they were most proficient in their ability to listen effectively and least proficient in asking effective questions. Each communication skill characteristic showed a statistically significant difference before and after college engagement, but we found no statistically significant difference in the overall communication scores of students. Therefore, we recommend: 1) interviewing employers to understand their perceptions of entry-level employees; 2) investigating when students transition from false sense of confidence to actual confidence; 3) conducting a longitudinal study to investigate students’ perceptions of communication skills throughout their college experience; 4) evaluating faculty’s communication
teaching methods across disciplines; and 5) investigating the influence of self-reflection on students’ attained communication skills. Conducting such studies could lead to stronger connections between the academy and the industry, especially as faculty strive to align their teaching with needs of the industry.
15 pages., via online journal, Genetic modification (GM) science has received considerable pushback from consumers despite the research finding GM products are safe for consumption. This may be partly due to the disconnect between consumers and farms since most consumers are disconnected from the farm by at least three generations. The largest consumer population is composed of millennials, which is the generation furthest removed from the farm which may mean they need to be educated differently about GM science than other generations. The purpose of this research was to determine if there were generational differences regarding the perceived attributes of GM science to inform the development of extension programs designed to educate consumers about GM science. A survey was used to collect consumers’ perceptions of GM science. The respondents were grouped into generational classifications and perceptions between groups were compared. The findings revealed generations do perceived GM science differently and extension programs should be designed for specific generational audiences.
18 pages, Organizational culture shapes how members of a group act. The culture has the power to exclude potential new members who do not fit into the culture of the organization. Research on urban school-based agriculture programs has indicated that urban agriculture students face barriers to their participation in the National FFA Organization (FFA). Experiences of urban FFA members at a National FFA Convention can provide researchers with an understanding of how urban agriculture students view the FFA organization. The purpose of the case study was to explore how urban FFA members experienced the FFA organizational culture while attending the 2012 National FFA Convention. We followed one urban FFA chapter during the 2012 National FFA Convention and conducted interviews before, during, and after the convention. We also conducted focus group interviews and made observations. Belmont FFA members did not generally perceive their experiences at the convention as a barrier to their involvement in FFA and were generally positive toward the FFA artifacts, beliefs, and values they identified at the convention. However, these findings need to be understood in the context of the members who attended the convention as their motivation to participate in FFA may have positively influenced their views.
