The Journal of Agricultural Education has primarily published research that uses quantitative research methods. Perhaps this is due partly to the lack of a qualitative research conceptual framework to guide our profession. Most researchers in agricultural education were academically prepared to conduct empirical research. Those who are in the professoriate are teaching and mentoring graduate students without the prerequisite skills to conduct qualitative research. In order to practice "good social science" research, agricultural educators need to understand the history of qualitative research, common types used in education, sampling techniques, data collection, analysis procedures, and issues of rigor and quality for the qualitative research paradigm. This study uses a heuristic research approach through a content analysis of the literature to create a qualitative research conceptual framework to guide the Agricultural Education profession.

Experiential learning and reflective writing are important components of college instructors' repertoires. Learning is not complete without proper reflection. The purpose of this study was to examine undergraduate students' perceptions of learning in a leadership course that emphasized experiential learning methods. The respondents included the students enrolled in a Professional Leadership Development course. Students were asked to keep a reflective journal and to prepare a reflective paper at course completion. Using content analysis of the students' reflections, it was determined that the students benefited from receiving instruction associated with experiential learning. They recognized each of the teaching strategies associated with the four stages of the Experiential Learning Cycle and the importance of each in maximizing learning. Incorporation of teaching strategies associated with experiential learning within the collegiate leadership classroom did enhance student learning, whereby allowing students to approach learning in a deep manner.

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to identify the required competencies and traits of successful agricultural science teachers. Data was collected from focus groups of agricultural science teachers and a content analysis of existing research. Results identified 47 unique traits or competencies that were divided into the categories of Instruction; Student Organization; Supervised Experience; Program Planning and Management; School and Community Relations; Personal Traits; and Professionalism. One newly discovered competency, "working with diverse groups," transcended categories. A model depicting the traits and competencies was developed.

Precision agriculture (PA) is a holistic, sustainable, innovative systems approach that assists farmers in production management. Adopting PA could improve sustainable food security and community economic sustainability. Developing an understanding of PA adoption attributes is needed in order to assist extension practitioners to promote adoption and better understand the innovation adoption phenomena. A systematic review of literature was conducted to investigate attributes that foster PA adoption. Thirty-three publications were examined, and four themes were found among the reviewed publications. The results were interpreted using Rogers’ diffusion of innovations framework to address the research objectives. Relative advantage and compatibility were two dominant attributes needed to strengthen the adoption of PA, and the complexity attribute was rarely communicated to promote the adoption of PA. The systematic review indicated the rate of farmer’s PA adoption does not occur at the highest potential levels due to inadequate communication of PA attributes from change agents to farmers. Extension field staff need professional development in communicating the five PA adoption attributes to farmers in order to improve PA adoption and enhance local sustainable food security. Thus, authors recommend future complexity studies from agricultural extension specialists’ perspectives to comprehend demonstratable approaches to motivate farmers’ adoption of PA.

Agricultural educators are familiar with the three domains of learning: 1) cognitive, 2) affective, and 3) psychomotor. When teaching agricultural content, the instructional and assessment strategies are typically focused on the cognitive domain of learning because of the difficulty in measuring gains in the affective domain. The purpose of this study was to measure affective learning after viewing an asynchronously delivered simulation, reflecting (metacognition), and writing about the experience. Research in agricultural education is devoid of writing as an assessment tool to measure learning in the affective domain. Content analysis of 83 reflective writing samples was used to analyze affective learning at the levels of receiving, responding, valuing, organization, and characterization. It was evident in the reflective writing that all students participated at the receiving and responding levels. It is much more difficult to assess students at the higher levels of the affective domain (valuing, organizing, and characterizing). From the analysis of reflective writing, the researchers recognized and determined that some students expressed affective learning at higher levels of the affective taxonomy and increased their level of reflective writing in the process.