Implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on school-based agricultural education teachers in South Carolina

Christopher Eck

doi:10.37433/aad.v2i2.117

Abstract

Understanding a complete school-based agricultural education (SBAE) program and the many tasks at hand for the teacher are critical in determining the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on SBAE teachers. The human capital theory was used to undergird this study, focusing on the components impacting the effectiveness of SBAE teachers. The purpose of the study was to determine the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on SBAE teachers in South Carolina (SC). This non-experimental survey research study reached 46.5% of SBAE teachers in SC through the electronic distribution of a 27-item survey instrument implementing a then-now design. SBAE teachers in SC felt less prepared to deliver relevant classroom instruction, supervise supervised agricultural experiences - projects, advise FFA members, and train Career and Leadership Development Events teams now than they did prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, while they feel more prepared to teach student virtually than ever before. The pandemic impacted the preparedness and self-efficacy of SBAE teachers, impacting both their career and personal life satisfaction. Moving forward SBAE teachers should evaluate their roles and responsibilities associated with their career and determine how to best bring balance into their lives. Additional research on the roles and responsibilities of SBAE teachers post-pandemic should also be considered.

Highlights

Introduction and Problem StatementThe World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak as a global pandemic on March 11, 2020 (World Health Organization, 2020)
School-based Agricultural Education (SBAE) teachers have a primary teaching responsibility, they are tasked with roles associated with their National FFA Organization (FFA) chapter, and students supervised agricultural experiences (SAE) (National FFA, 2015)
Findings for Research Question Two: Establish Perceived Levels of Self-Efficacy Prior to and During the Pandemic SBAE teachers in South Carolina (SC) varied based on their self-perceived levels of efficacy related to a completed SBAE program prior to and during the pandemic

Summary

Introduction

The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak as a global pandemic on March 11, 2020 (World Health Organization, 2020) This announcement cased a ripple effect as schools, businesses and government agents across the country had to adapt normal day-to-day operations to limit in-person contact (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2020). To effectively deliver a complete program, SBAE teachers assume many roles to engage students in all three components (Terry & Briers, 2010). These diverse roles require additional time commitments over a traditional classroom teacher (Torres et al, 2008). Given the sudden change in instructional delivery and demand for technological proficiency from SBAE teachers (Lindner et al, 2020), the questions of what implications did the COVID-19 pandemic have on SBAE teachers in South Carolina (SC) to deliver a complete program arose

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