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Preparing students to be life-long learners that are career and college ready is a goal of agricultural education. Changing expectations of education have pointed to agriculture educators as potential leaders in the STEM education movement. Literature related to STEM education in agricultural education is lacking in guidance for teachers, administrators, and curriculum developers in integrating academic content related to STEM content areas. A review of STEM education literature coupled with the framework of quantitative reasoning, lead to a conceptualization of a framework for integrative agricultural education. This framework was implemented through a case study to investigate collaborative efforts in curriculum development in agricultural education with a specific focus on integrating mathematics to develop students' quantitative reasoning skills. Teacher characteristics were identified that seemed to support the implementation of integrative agricultural education practices. Teaching and planning strategies were also identified in the case study. Recommendations suggest support of collaboration between agriculture and mathematics teachers would best support curriculum design and aid in the quality of instruction that follows. / Ph. D.

The forage depletion of western ranges which has occured during the past century is partly the result of the belief by ranchers that the forage loss was temporary and not serious. Should more forage of a high quality be desired they thought it could be produced by reseeding the ranges. The native western forages, never abundant or luxurious by eastern concepts, nevertheless were of generally high qualities. Limited by low and eratically distributed precipitation, the sparse native forages have in many reas given way to low quality plants. These plants of low quality do not have to withstand the adverse circumstances of both poor growing conditions and heavy grazing. In particularly sever cases an area has been almost completely denuded, exposing the soil to unchecked accellerated erosion.

Identifying the motivating factors for recruitment and retention of volunteers who are currently enrolled in Utah 4-H is essential to the maintenance of a successful program. This study aimed to determine if there were any specific volunteer motivators related to retention and recruitment and how those motivators related to the cultural demographics of Utah volunteers. Data were collected from 4-H volunteers across the state of Utah to gather baseline information about demographics and motivations. Results indicated that religious affiliation was not a strong indicator of volunteer recruitment but served as a strong motivator toward volunteer retention. The underlying motive of the 4-H volunteers, related to all types of involvement in the program, was an altruistic desire to help others.

Alfalfa has a wide range of adaptability as a forage plant, but the areas in which it will produce seed successfully are extremely limited. These sections are confined almost exclusively to the arid or semi-arid regions of the world. In all other areas it is primarily a question of seasonal fitness. The wxtreme localization may be further emphasized by the fact that within the highest producing counties there are appreciable areas of land not suitable for seed production.

Since the turn of the century there has been a trend within the State of Utah toward moe and smaller farms. The original farm units taken up by the early settlers of this state have been divided and subdivided until Utah today has hundreds of uneconomical-sized farms too small to be operated profitably under their present organization. To make room for the new agricultural generation, the old homesteads have been divided among the sons of the families until a farm that was once supporting one family is now unsatisfactorily contributing to the support of several families. This condition has resulted in serious economic and social problems.

This study examines agricultural education in Botswana among students and teachers. Since independence in 1966 to the present time, agricultural production has declined from about 40 percent to about 3 percent. Harsh climatic conditions and a general ignorance about agriculture contribute to the restricted perception of agriculture and careers in this field. Individual and focus group interviews were conducted with agricultural teachers who had resigned and former graduates in four secondary schools and three postsecondary educational institutions (Botswana College of Agriculture, University of Botswana, and Tonota College of Education). Negative, positive and mixed images emerged that revealed some similar and some contradictory perceptions of agriculture education. The attrition of teachers also attracted attention because of their working conditions and their images of agricultural teaching. However, the phenomenon of teacher attrition is not unique to agriculture. Students and teachers had conflicting images concerning curriculum instruction. Teachers identified the inadequacy of practicals because students are unable to apply the theoretical knowledge they have acquired to satisfy the various skills required in their new jobs. On the other hand, students perceived practicals as misdirected intensive labour. Non-agricultural tertiary students demonstrated that they do not have a full understanding of the potential career opportunities that agriculture can provide. They often thought that agriculture was confined to ploughing and food production. Nevertheless, both agricultural students and non-agricultural students agreed that agriculture could be a good career that they might consider later in their lives. Participants in the study suggested strategies to enhance the poor perception of agriculture education in educational institutions in Botswana. One strategy was for curriculum reform, such that agriculture teaching should reinforce practicals that are relevant to students’ needs. Practical instruction should not be used as intensive manual labour but should be used to target specific skills that are needed in industry. Agriculture teaching should start at primary school so that pupils can develop a positive image towards agriculture education at a young age, at the age of seven students could be involved in simple experiments conducted in laboratories, then at eleven years students can start practicals in the garden, making sure not to overwork the pupils. Through career guidance and counselling, agricultural teachers should broaden the limited perception that agriculture is simply food production and expand the field to its scientific and commercial careers, such as food processing and marketing. Even though the Ministry of Agriculture provides some incentives to farmers, they misappropriate the schemes. Access to loans has to be provided for students who have completed their studies and cannot find jobs so that they can also join the field of production. Even though women are dominated by men in both agriculture and in education and food production in Botswana, this trend is changing; there are more female enrolments in agricultural educational institutions than males. The government is trying to create an equitable distribution of resources for women as well. The position of women in Botswana is better than what literature has revealed in sub Saharan Africa.

This thesis focuses overtly, on developing undergraduate curricula both generally and specifically in agriculture and related fields and covertly, on an appeal to raise the status, quality and products of undergraduate education. A closer examination is made of the relationship between the structure, function and purpose of tertiary education, the immediate and long-term professional needs of the undergraduate student and the current and future requirements of the communities in which graduates will study, lead, live, learn and work. It is my contention that the reality and challenge of the undergraduate student’s on and off-campus community experiences should be the catalyst, motivation and transformational cauldron for their professional and personal development and that their curriculum should be designed, delivered, assessed and reported to reflect this individual development. I argue that currently this is not the case and consequently students graduating from more traditionally designed and delivered courses are less prepared for a changing and changeable world. Primary and secondary research evidence presented supports this position. A universal remedial model, schema or conceptual framework emerging from the assimilation of primary and secondary research, is presented and substantially explained. The schema is so designed that a wide variety of core curricula could be developed based on context, need and circumstance. The intricate design of the schema as a “mandala” was inspired by a creative fusing of ancient western, ancient eastern and modern philosophies however, a wide range of essential underpinning ‘developmental’, ‘educational’ and ‘learning’ theories are integrated into its structure and function. The “Twilight Curriculum”, a unique component of the schema was inspired by theories relating to the “Hidden Curriculum” and “Self Determined Learning”. It focuses on the development of wisdom through interest and needs-based action research / action learning projects. Wisdom in this argument emerges in the student as attributes such as professionalism, cognisance, compotency, autonomy, synergism, perspicacity, persistence and expertise all of which contribute to the student’s overall character. Contextually relative praxis development central to the student’s personal and professional transformation, is presented as the generator of wisdom. An argument is made in Chapter 1 that universities generally have two sides “an espoused” and “an actual” this duplicity tends to diminish the veracity of the university’s purpose and subsequently stifles undergraduate curricular innovation and development. This confusion ultimately reduces a graduate’s professional effectiveness. Chapter 2 focuses on the role of the agricultural graduate in helping the community1 cope with an increasingly complex and changeable world. Chapter 3 presents 1 Community refers to collectives based on many uniting properties, forces and boundaries, some of which are: locale, family, social networks, culture, religion, ethnicity, norms and habits, common purpose, professional pursuits.(Smith, 2001) the primary research process focusing on the research question ‘What are the conceptual framework design properties for an undergraduate, agricultural core curriculum that is grounded in community?���� The Research Methodology is discussed and theoretically underpinned. The three quantitative and qualitative research instruments and their respective theoretical foundations are explained and validated. The research was conducted with staff and students in two agricultural institutions, one in India and the other in the United States of America. The research results for the three instruments are presented in Chapter 4. The results across the three research instruments indicate a desire by both staff and students for a general change in the structure, function, delivery and assessment of the undergraduate agricultural curriculum. Staff and students’ indicated a change from the current generic, teacher/subject based, theoretical approach to curriculum design, delivery and assessment, to a preferred specific, student / needs based and applied approach. These research results are analysed and discussed at length in Chapter 5. An overview argument is proposed suggesting that learning is a personal journey and that knowledge resides in the experience of the learner, however that journey can be enhanced by not only the nature of the experience but also the critical sense made. Chapter 5 also provides clarity for the results in the form of secondary research. This mainly focuses on a variety of learning theories, student development theory, community engagement theory and preferred graduate attributes as well as an array of the author’s professional experiences that related directly to the research. Assimilating the primary and secondary results provide not only an answer to the research question, but also partially lay the foundation for the core curriculum schema design. The conceptual framework design properties for designing the core curriculum schema are: individualised personal and professional transformative learning cultivated within relevant on and off campus community engaged environments and facilitated by concerned academics, that incorporate mutually beneficial relationships between self, others and the setting using praxis development as the central educative process resulting in the development through action learning and action research projects of generic and specific attributes that are periodically formatively and summatively assessed. The properties identified in Chapters 5 and 6 are applied in the development of a unique undergraduate agricultural core curriculum schema or model in Chapter 7. Curriculum Theory, Educational Theory, Community Engagement Theory, Rural Development Theory, Graduate Attribute Theory, ancient history and Eastern Philosophy, the author’s secondary and tertiary teaching experiences, his professional and rural development activities are discussed and provide an underpinning for the schema development process. In this chapter a philosophical argument about ‘who owns the curriculum, who owns the learning’ is presented, drawing upon ancient Chinese Taoist ideas in a generic and specific quest for wisdom. The Taoist Yin and Yang are symbolically converted into a scholarly relationship between theory and practice, as praxis. The author’s praxis development of the core curriculum schema has also generated several innovative concepts, models, expressions and processes, such as: • The Twilight Curriculum—the individual student’s self-initiated personal and professional development. • The concept of ‘compotency’—a hybridisation of concepts such as capability, capacity and competency. • A model for Praxis Development incorporating a figure eight loop that integrates research, experience and compotency. • The notion of Career Constructivism—building effectiveness initiated through critical on and off-campus community experience. • Presenting a curriculum model as Mandala—an ancient Sanscrit geoglyph style based on intricate, interconnected and convoluted circles with priority positioning towards the centre. • The notion of a Venn Trigram as a model for describing student development pathways from epistemic framework to personal and professional attributes. ���� The notion of integrated three stage development modes as nested ellipsoids. In Chapter 8 the Undergraduate Core Curriculum Mandala constructed in Chapter 6 is ‘reverse engineered’ in order to more fully explain the components in particular, the developmental process as an evolution from epistemic sources to effective student attributes producing job ready graduates who have truly learnt how to learn. Chapter 9 presents a conclusion to the thesis. The research outcomes are briefly re-outlined and attention is drawn to the plight of rural communities and the need for a different kind of graduate—a need that could be satisfied by utilising the proposed Core Curriculum Schema to inform undergraduate curriculum design. Reservations are expressed about challenges to the status quo in modern commercial universities in that staff and student cultures are so ingrained that adoption of the proposed schema or any such diversion from a traditional model,would not be an easy. I believe that a transformational journey of approaches to undergraduate education is inevitable if undergraduate agriculture in particular is to remain viable as a tertiary field of study. Chapter 9 is concluded with a personal reflection of the scope and focus of this thesis. A plea is made for raising the status of the undergraduate curriculum as a finale to the argument. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)