This History of Education Society Presidential Address primarily utilizes evocative autoethnography and narrative inquiry to convey its main points. It is written in the storytelling tradition of the African American past and analyzes the lives of three generations of Black Mississippians as they navigated life in Jim Crow Mississippi. It…

This paper aims to present two potential instruments that will address the lack of knowledge in regard to the context of students' reality from teaching professionals in a specific school, these being: a local historiography (record of "yesterday"), based on oral history; and a reality inventory (record of "today"), elaborated…

This article presents a perspective on the behavior of the local food grower during the market-related decision-making process. The relevant behavior is manifested during the planning, growing, and harvesting and selling phases of the agricultural business cycle. The local food grower faces a set of market alternatives from which, if applying a…

This article outlines a four-step model for developing a training program for farm labor supervisors. The model draws on key lessons learned during the development of the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Farm Labor Supervisor Training program. The program is designed to educate farm supervisors on farm labor laws…

The experiences of the men, women, and children who labored in the beet fields of the North Platte Valley changed significantly as the sugar beet industry went through a period of rapid expansion prior to 1920 and then reached a relatively stable plateau. During the period of expansion, laborers were attracted by promises of reasonable wages, good…

Dairy cows at risk of becoming non-ambulatory or downers represent economic losses and animal well-being issues for the dairy industry. Colorado State University researchers and Extension faculty collaborated with Colorado's dairy industry to create a training tool for the early identification and management of cows at risk of becoming downers on…

Migrant and seasonal farmworkers are typically Spanish-speaking, Latino immigrants with limited formal education and low literacy skills and, as such, are a vulnerable population. We describe the development of the "Pesticides and Farmworker Health Toolkit", a pesticide safety and health curriculum designed to communicate to farmworkers…

Cesar Chavez, who co-founded the United Farm Workers (UFW) with Dolores Huerta in 1962, dedicated his life to grassroots organizing to persuade lawmakers and the public to help improve the working conditions of migrant farm workers. In October 1992, the author had been teaching a unit of study on civics to her sixth grade bilingual students in…

Child labour in India has long been the focus of research, policy concern and intervention. This article presents an analysis of children's involvement in agricultural work, particularly cottonseed production, drawing on evidence gathered for Young Lives in 2007 and 2008. In parts of Andhra Pradesh, children work in cotton fields for two or three…

During the interwar period, California's labor-intensive agriculture transitioned from reliance on diverse immigrants to preference for Mexicans. Political movements to restrict immigration, the Great Depression, and labor unrest compelled farm employers to search for labor that could be used flexibly and deported easily. To achieve this…

Conducting evaluations that are both valid and ethical is imperative for the support and sustainability of programs that address underserved and vulnerable populations. A key component is to have evaluators who are knowledgeable about relevant cultural issues and sensitive to population needs. Hispanics in rural settings are vulnerable for many…

Calvin Lunsford Beale was born in Washington, DC, on June 6, 1923, and passed away at age 85 on September 2, 2008. He was a city boy born and bred, and while he "never wanted to live in a rural area" he became one of the most astute observers of rural America in the latter half of the twentieth century. Calvin spent the majority of his…

Energy is relevant to all areas of human life; energy sustains us through food, drives our transportation, warms and cools our buildings, and powers our electrical gadgets. In nature, ecosystems function by capturing and transforming energy. Agroecosystems are formed when humans manipulate the capture and flow of energy for food, fiber, and fuel…

The cowboy is viewed as an American icon: rider of the open range, rugged individual, and champion of good. Cowboys are still very much a part of American culture today. Why is it important to study cowboys? The introduction of cattle and horses by the Spanish "conquistadors" transformed the local culture, influenced the economics of the…

Illegal migrants are a nonentity in the United States, and, to a certain extent, many prefer it that way. They exist in society's netherworld, living under their own code of survival by whatever means they can, since the alternatives are less inviting. Mostly, they struggle. People take advantage of them at every opportunity because they are…