Teacher recruitment and retention in the United States has been deemed an issue across all disciplines and grade-levels. School-based agricultural education (SBAE) is no exception to this issue, where for decades a national shortage of qualified agriculture teachers has persisted. According to the 2021 Illinois Agricultural Education Annual…

Attrition is a documented cause for ongoing SBAE teacher shortages and is often linked with the number of challenges faced by teachers and their ability to overcome them. Teacher experiences with challenges and barriers has the potential to impact occupational self-efficacy, or their perceived ability to do their job. Lower occupational…

Despite decades of research about the agriculture teacher shortage problem, we still know little about the ways in which secondary agriculture teachers assume their roles and responsibilities as members of social and cultural communities. Expanding how we have historically researched this problem is crucial, especially if we hope to mitigate the…

This article describes the collaborative efforts of various state and national agencies working together to recruit and retain agriculture teachers in the states of Kentucky, South Carolina, and Ohio. We contrast multiple measures of recruitment and retention in these states with those from the comparator states of Arkansas, West Virginia, and…

With the ongoing national shortage of agricultural educators, alternative certification has become increasingly important. The preparation programs for alternatively certified educators to enter the profession vary in content and length due to state requirements. This study sought to determine South Dakota Alternatively Certified SBAE Teachers'…

Agricultural education, like many other disciplines, is experiencing a shortage of school-based agricultural education (SBAE) teachers. We examined the perceptions of Pennsylvania SBAE teachers regarding extended contracts as they have been identified as a possible tool to improve recruitment and retention. The purpose of the study was to sample…

A teacher shortage continues to plague the SBAE profession. While this shortage has been quantified and explored from the perspective of individual teachers, little research has taken a systemic approach to the problem of the SBAE teacher shortage. We posit the teacher shortage problem as inextricably linked to a convoluted job description and…

The shortage of teachers, specifically agriculture teachers, has been established and literature shows us why some teachers choose to leave. The question remains, how can we provide induction programs to agriculture teachers that support their unique needs and ultimately retain beginning agriculture teachers in the profession long term? This…

Little progress has been made to understand the (in)abilities of school-based agricultural education (SBAE) teachers to balance their work and life responsibilities. Nevertheless, advancing this conversation is critical, especially in light of ongoing teacher shortage trends. In response, this study's purpose was two-fold: (1) examine how early…

The sustained shortage of school-based agricultural educators necessitates novel research into variables impacting teacher career commitment. In the current study, a previously unexplored variable in the prediction of career commitment within school-based agricultural education was considered, teacher connectivity. Four elements of teacher…

Approximately half of a million educators move or leave the profession each year with an estimated 41% of all educators exiting within the first five years. Additionally, agriculture teacher preparation programs are not producing enough graduates to meet current demands with 1,476 agricultural teacher vacancies existing in 2016 and only 772…

Sustaining human capital in the agricultural industry is critical to the United States' ability to maintain preeminence in the global economy. This goal has become a greater challenge due to declining participation in agricultural academic programs, particularly at 1890 institutions. Although the anticipated outcome of the 1965 "merger"…

Ongoing teacher shortages in SBAE have been a concern dating back to the Smith-Hughes Act of 1917 (Hillison, 1987). This historical inquiry identified the longitudinal trends revealed by data derived from the supply and demand studies of SBAE teachers over a 51-year period, and how the studies and their reporting procedures evolved. On average,…

Targeted teacher recruitment is suggested as a way to alleviate the teacher shortage in specific content areas such as agricultural mechanics. Learning experiences are linked to increased selfefficacy and increased interest in specific career pursuits. The Agricultural Mechanics Power & Design (AMP'D) Experience was developed as a learning…

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…