The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in career commitment and perceived efficacy among early career agriculture teachers as well as the relationships between early career agriculture teachers' perceived efficacy and career commitment. Five areas of selfefficacy were investigated among early career agriculture teachers in five western states: classroom management, instructional strategies, leadership of students, science teaching, and math teaching. Only small effects were found on four of the five self-efficacy variables based on years of teaching experience. Using multiple linear regression analysis, a predictive model for early career agriculture teachers' career commitment was developed. The final model explained a total of 20% of the variance in early career agriculture teachers' career commitment. Two areas of self-efficacy were identified as significantly related to early career teachers' career commitment, teachers' sense of efficacy in classroom management and science teaching. These findings implicate a need for increased emphasis on classroom management strategies and science teaching strategies throughout agriculture teacher development. Recommendations are made for potential self-efficacy building experiences based on Bandura's theory of self-efficacy.
Data from a random sample of secondary school agriculture teachers in the United States were utilized to explore work characteristics and their relationship to work-family conflict, specifically how the work role interfered with the family role. Nine workplace characteristics (i.e., salary, work hours per work week, weekend work hours, years of teaching experience, number of agriculture teachers within the school, school community type, number of students per class, work salience, and perceived family-supportive work culture) were explored by gender. Two of the workplace characteristics, years of teaching experience and salary, were significantly different for male and female agriculture teachers. An analysis was conducted of the relationship between identified workplace characteristics and teachers' perceptions of their work role interfering with their family role. In total, the workplace variables accounted for 22% of the variance in teachers' perceptions of work interfering with their family. Four of the workplace variables (i.e., perceived familysupportive work culture, number of agriculture teachers per school, work salience, and work hours per work week) were statistically significant predictors of work interfering with family. Recommendations and implications for the agriculture teaching profession are discussed in light on these findings.
This research sought to evaluate the use of the self-efficacy theory in agricultural education. A total of 30 studies, published between 1997 and 2013 using self-efficacy as a theoretical foundation were compiled and analyzed. The findings of these studies were compared to expected outcomes identified by the self-efficacy theory, specifically the positive relationship between Bandura's four identified self-efficacy building experiences and increased self-efficacy as well as the relationship between self-efficacy and career persistence. This synthesis highlights important considerations for the use of self-efficacy theory in agricultural education, including a shift from mastery experiences to vicarious experiences in the teacher development process and specific considerations for the establishment of social persuasion between cooperating and student teachers. Finally, based on the comparison of past research in agricultural education and selfefficacy theory, recommendations are made for future research that will continue the articulation of this theory in both research and practice within agricultural education.
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