Supervisor Involvement and Professional Development Needs Associated with SAE Programming and Safety

Abstract

This descriptive survey research study sought to gather evidence of school-based agriculture teachers’ perceptions of community supervisor involvement with supervision and planning of students’ Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) work activities and safety training professional development needs. Responding teachers indicated they agreed to strongly agreed that secondary agricultural education teachers were highly involved in planning (90.5%, f = 208), student SAE projects but were in less agreement that parents (57.6%, f = 133), and employers (45.0%, f = 104) were highly involved in planning students’ SAE projects. Teachers were more in agreement that parents (62.6%, f = 144) and employers (68.8%, f = 159) were highly involved in supervising students’ SAE projects. The professional development topic with the lowest level of agreement (58.5%) was preparing safety guidelines for SAE programs. Other safety related professional development topics of interest from teachers included chain saw safety, greenhouse safety, ladder safety, and processing equipment. Agricultural education professionals should implement community outreach seminars and curriculum to support teachers’ professional development in engaging community stakeholders to assist teachers with improving safety conditions for student workers. Additional professional development may be dedicated to technical safety training targeted for specific production agriculture hazards. Recommendations for further research are discussed.