Abstract
Personal decision making, participation in civic and cultural affairs, and economic productivity are the end goals of education in different disciplines at the individual level. If knowledge and understanding of agriculturally-related scientific and technologically-based concepts are included in the processes required for personal decision-making, participation in civic and cultural affairs, and economic productivity, it is called agricultural literacy. Agricultural awareness which requires understanding of basic concepts related to agriculture, and their impacts on social and economic life of the society, is the first step of agricultural literacy. This research study examined 310 prospective elementary teachers’ understandings of basic concepts related to agriculture, including its definition. Therefore; participants’ agricultural awareness as a prerequisite for literacy was examined. Research participants were chosen among three programs, mathematics, science and social studies, at the elementary education department. A questionnaire, prepared by the researchers, and interviews with selected participants was the two ways to collect data. Data from questionnaires were analyzed statistically, whereas data gathered through interviews were analyzed qualitatively. Therefore; it is a mixed method research where two techniques were used to analyze data. Quantitative data analysis corresponds mean values of participants with regard to programs they attend. The mean difference among prospective elementary teachers’ from different programs was significant at the 0.05 level. Therefore, the sequence of means display that prospective mathematics teachers are more knowledgeable than social studies teachers and lastly, prospective science teachers have the least amount of agricultural knowledge among the others. Participants’ agricultural knowledge which might be counted as the basic of agricultural awareness and literacy was at the moderate level. Qualitative data analysis of interviews displays participants’ reasoning and resources of what they know about the issue. Details about qualitative analysis were given in the paper. Key words: Agricultural awareness, agricultural literacy, misconceptions in agriculture.
Highlights
AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUNDRapid increase in population brings problems about nutrition
Based on the review of literature cited earlier, for the research study presented in this paper agricultural literacy is defined as decision making, problem solving and making judgments about agricultural issues, whereas agricultural awareness is defined as understanding basic concepts related to agricultural issues and their societal impacts including the definition of agriculture
Based on the analytical review of studies mentioned above, the purpose of this research study is to examine prospective elementary teachers’ agricultural awareness limited to their conceptual understandings about agricultural and environmental issues related to agriculture
Summary
Rapid increase in population brings problems about nutrition. Nutrition with healthy, good and enough amount of food gained importance in our world today. They emphasized the change in the efforts to define agricultural literacy from mostly technical aspects of production and distribution of agricultural goods to include sense of environmental and global social significance They argued the efforts to define it in terms of conversational knowledge, critical analysis, and value based judgment. Based on the review of literature cited earlier, for the research study presented in this paper agricultural literacy is defined as decision making, problem solving and making judgments about agricultural issues, whereas agricultural awareness is defined as understanding basic concepts related to agricultural issues and their societal impacts including the definition of agriculture. Knobloch and Martin (2002) emphasized the recommendations of several educators for many years that agriculture should be taught in elementary school curriculum They cited Dewey’s (1938) philosophy of experiential education which stated the necessity of ordinary life experiences to derive materials in studies like arithmetic, history, geography, or natural sciences. Based on the analytical review of studies mentioned above, the purpose of this research study is to examine prospective elementary teachers’ agricultural awareness limited to their conceptual understandings about agricultural and environmental issues related to agriculture
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