Exploring the Role of Agriculture Teachers in Core Academic Integration

Abstract

Core academic skills are essential for success in our society. However, an abundance of research has identified a large proportion of secondary school students are underperforming in core academic areas such as literacy and math. Researchers have suggested integrating core academic content throughout all secondary coursework as a potential solution to students’ underperformance in core academics. This study focused on core academic integration in secondary agricultural education classrooms and explored a conceptual model for teachers’ core academic integration competence in the areas of math and literacy. Results indicated pedagogical competence and technical knowledge were significant predictors of teachers’ reading integration competence. Pedagogical competence was also a significant predictor of respondents’ writing and math integration competences. These findings highlight the importance of agriculture teachers’ ability to engage students through effective pedagogical strategies as a potential precursor to competence integrating reading, writing, and math. Implications and strategies for utilizing the proposed model and the findings from this research are discussed.