Women faculty membership in the American Association for Agricultural Education was 14.6% in 2003 and is now 21.9%. With strategic goals to build a more inclusive and collaborative culture within the association, the need to recruit and retain diverse faculty remains in agricultural and extension education (AEE). The purpose of this critical inquiry study was to provide an updated profile of women faculty in postsecondary AEE by describing the current organizational climate and mentoring experiences. Following the basic interpretive qualitative methodology, a census of women faculty in AEE was conducted. Four emergent themes described women faculty's perceptions of the unique challenges, opportunities, and mentoring experiences in AEE: (a) contributors to a positive work environment, (b) contributors to a toxic work environment, (c) mentoring experiences in the profession, and (d) work-life integration. Women faculty valued encouragement, collaboration, transparency, and mentorship within the profession. Sexism, marginalization, and unhealthy competition were identified as barriers. Women faculty held three conflicting perceptions of work-life integration. Opportunities to create a more inclusive organizational culture with intentional mentorship for women faculty in AEE should be considered. Continued critical research to promote the inclusion of diverse faculty in AEE is recommended.
Over the last three years, agricultural educators have demonstrated a strong preference for the coaching role, as defined by the Kolb Educator Role Profile (KERP). The purpose of this collective case study was to better understand why this dominant coach preference exists in Oklahoma preservice agricultural educators. Kolb Educator Role Profile (KERP) results, and semi-structured interviews to understand the choice rationale of preservice agricultural educators, were coded to determine the assessment’s qualitative validity. Two theoretical themes to address key issues emerged: (a) KERP theoretical perspectives and (b) espoused theories. An adapted KERP framework reflects the case’s diverging conceptualizations. Four theoretical categories describe the educator roles in agricultural education: (a) the friend, (b) the know-it-all, (c) the sounding board, and (d) the career development event (CDE) coach. Two theoretical categories capture conceptualization of learning modes: (a) student-first versus book-knowledge focus and (b) dialogue versus hands-on focus. Espoused theories of the preservice agricultural educators reveal KERP item statements were chosen that (a) reflect how I was taught, (b) connect to what I am good at, (c) involve action and real-world, (d) let agricultural education be different, (e) focus on personal growth of students, (f) are what I think students like, and (g) I understand. Recommendations for both improved validity and practice are provided.
The “leaky educational pipeline” metaphor refers to the steady tapering off of women obtaining graduate degrees and reaching the level of a tenured faculty member, although the number of women earning college degrees has surpassed males since the 1980s. Women are disproportionately represented among faculty and leadership at land-grant institutions and in the agricultural education profession. The purpose of this study was to provide a synthesis of women’s experience in postsecondary agricultural and extension education (AEE) by describing the common and diverging challenges, opportunities, and mentoring experiences of women faculty and graduate students in the profession. The study was a textual narrative synthesis of two preliminary studies which provided an updated profile of the current organizational climate and mentoring experiences of women faculty and women graduate students in AEE. Three overarching themes with 11 categories emerged to summarize the experiences of women in AEE: (a) navigating a traditional academic system, (b) operating in a male-dominated discipline, and (c) influencing change in the profession. These findings challenge the AEE profession to critically acknowledge women’s experiences and begin looking outside academia for solutions to create a more inclusive organizational culture that values gender diversity.
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