This intrinsic case study examined the case of students on CDE (Career Development Event)

Teacher education is facing a number of challenges such as policy changes, funding issues, and teacher recruitment and retention. These challenges, whether on the national, state, district or school level, contribute to continued teacher shortages. Many school districts are faced with the conundrum of hiring under qualified individuals, leaving vacant positions open, or eliminating positions altogether. Thus, within all subject areas of education, a strong philosophical perspective needs to be developed to answer the question: Is alternative certification a solution to these problems or an alternative problem? This philosophical manuscript investigates the research related to alternative certification within education as a whole, career and technical education, and agricultural education. Research in education broadly indicates a lack of consistency within the current alternative certification pathways and a lack of consistent/positive influence on student outcomes within alternatively certified teachers. It is recommended that future research should investigate the impacts of various certification pathways on students. Furthermore, teacher certification pathways should be based upon solid evidence from research regarding what generates the best learning outcomes for students.

The purpose of this study was to identify the processes School Based Agricultural Education (SBAE) teachers utilize to support students’ psychological needs and motivation. SBAE teachers were sampled who taught for five or more years and displayed a range of SBAE successes. Within the five participating schools, all FFA members were recruited to participate. The average student participant was female, a freshman, and identified agriculture as a potential future career. Through an exploratory sequential design, quantitative instruments were first utilized to gauge the motivational climate and the teachers’ autonomy orientation. Grounded theory interviews and observations were utilized to determine the processes of needs support. Through open, axial, and selective coding and the convergent analysis a substantive theory was formed. Within the theory, teacher motivational beliefs emerged as the context of the needs support process and supported the central phenomenon of relatedness. Teachers also utilized extrinsic and intrinsic motivational strategies, along with the intracurricular nature of SBAE programs to strengthen student motivation. Students experienced a range of outcomes including support of competence, support and thwart of autonomy, and a range of extrinsic and intrinsic motivational outcomes. The substantive theory can inform in-service, preservice, and teacher educators about the motivational process.

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Civic engagement activities are utilized to enhance youth's citizenship skills and content knowledge, and to strengthen the community's status. Post-activity reflections can be utilized to strengthen the benefits of civic engagement activities but are often underutilized. This quasiexperimental study sought to determine the influence of guided reflection following FFA civic engagement activities on students' self-perceived civic responsibility. Through the use of a nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design, four schools and students who participated in FFA civic engagement activities (n = 138) were randomly assigned to either a group discussion after reflection or a no-reflection group. It was found that throughout all time periods, students felt slightly connected to their community, community needs awareness, and civic efficacy. It was also found that the reflection treatment group exhibited statistically significantly higher community needs awareness and civic efficacy construct mean scores than the no-reflection group. It is recommended for FFA chapters to provide a wide variety of short-term civic engagement activities with reflection components.

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School Based Agricultural Education (SBAE) teachers can experience physiological stress through their various roles and responsibilities, including preparing Career Development Event (CDE) teams. Through CDE participation, students can encounter numerous benefits, but these academic competitions could be catalysts for stress. The purpose of this exploratory case study was to contextualize the experiences of high-achieving SBAE teachers and CDE participants through the lens of stress and resilience. Using a concurrent triangulated mixed methods design, physiological, quantitative data were collected through ambulatory heart rate monitors, and qualitative data were collected through teacher and CDE participant daily journals. We found that teachers encountered stress reactions the majority of the time with little to no recovery, where students experienced a more extensive range of stress reactions and recovery within the quantitative analysis. Both CDE contextspecific and role-specific stress catalysts existed within the qualitative and convergent analysis. SBAE teachers and CDE participants should utilize strategies that address both (a) sleep deprivation and (b) anticipatory and in-action stress to allow for increased cognitive performance and resilience.

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