LD2668 .T4 1940 M36 / Master of Science

LD2668 .T4 1954 M35 / Master of Science

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to determine the knowledge junior and senior public high school counselors in Georgia have of careers in agriculture and to examine the attitudes junior and senior public high school counselors in Georgia have toward careers in agriculture. The population for the study consisted of all junior and senior high school counselors in the State of Georgia during the 1975-1976 school term. The population was stratified by gender and geographical location of employment in Georgia, from which a random sample was selected. The instrument used in this research was a three-part Counselor Inventory which was designed specifically for this study. Part A of the inventory consisted of twelve socio-demographic items, Part B was a Knowledge Survey which consisted of twenty items designed to measure knowledge of careers in agriculture, and Part C was an Attitude Scale which consisted of twenty items designed to examine attitudes toward careers in agriculture. Independent variables of the study were gender, age, race, location of high school attended, geographical location of employment in the State of Georgia, experience of the counselor in vocational agriculture in high school, experience in youth organizations, type of institution conferring the bachelor's degree, type of institution conferring the master's degree, status of employment of the counselor, years of experience as a counselor, and years of experience in agricultural and agriculturally related occupations. Dependent variables for the study were counselor knowledge and counselor attitude. Non-parametric statistics were employed in analyzing the data. Significant relationship was found to exist between race and knowledge; and gender, years of experience as a counselor, and years of experience in agricultural and agriculturally related occupations when correlated with attitudes. A significant relationship was also found to exist between counselor knowledge and counselor attitude. There was a significant relationship between counselor knowledge and race. White counselors tended to be more knowledgeable of careers in agriculture than black counselors. However, black counselors tended to have more positive attitudes toward careers in agriculture than white counselors. Nevertheless, the level of relationship was not significant. A significant relationship existed between counselor attitudes and gender. Female counselors tended to have more positive attitudes toward careers in agriculture than male counselors. Although, male counselors tended to be more knowledgeable of careers in agriculture than female counselors. However, the extent of the relationship was not statistically significant. There was a significant relationship between counselor attitudes and years of experience in agricultural and agriculturally related occupations. Counselors with 11 or more years of experience in agricultural or agriculturally related occupations tended to have more positive attitudes toward careers in agriculture than those with 0-5 or 6-10 years of experience in agricultural occupations. Although, counselors with 0-10 years of experience in agricultural occupations tended to be more knowledgeable than those with 11 or more years of experience. The extent of the relationship was not significant. A significantly positive correlation of .13 existed between counselor knowledge and counselor attitude. The zero order Pearson product-moment correlation was used in analyzing the data. Counselors who had vocational agriculture experience in high school were not as knowledgeable of careers in agriculture as those counselors who did not have vocational agriculture experience in high school. This finding compares favorably with the findings of Laborde (1973). The attitudes of counselors who did not have vocational agriculture experience in high school tended to have more positive attitudes toward careers in agriculture than those counselors who had vocational agriculture experiences in high school. The level of relationship was not statistically significant. / Ed. D.

The primary objectives of this study were to answer the following questions: Do the high school supervised occupational experience programs of vocational agriculture students contribute to establishment in an occupation? Do the perceptions of the supervised occupational experience programs held by former students relate to their supervised occupational experience programs? The population selected for this study consisted of former Virginia production agriculture students who participated in a 1976 study conducted by Martin McMillion and Martin Auville. A total of 185 former students constituted the population. A two-part questionnaire was used to collect data. Part I solicited information concerning establishment in occupations of the former students. Part II obtained the perceptions of the supervised occupational experience program held by the former students. One hundred fifty-three of the 185 former students were located. One hundred and three of the former students responded to the questionnaire. The independent variable, Farming Program Score, was derived in the McMillion and Auville study. The score consisted of a numerical value derived from several factors which indicated the quantity in supervised farming programs. Hypotheses concerning six measures of establishment in an occupation, the dependent variable, were tested. The statistical analyses used were chi-square and the Product-Moment Correlation. The major conclusions of this study were: (1) Over 93 percent of the former students were employed full time. (2) As the scope of the farming programs of the former students increased, the likelihood of their first and present job being in agriculture. (3) The yearly income of the former students who had farming programs that were large in scope were higher than the yearly incomes of those who had farming programs small in scope. (4) No relationships were found between the scope of the farming programs and the job stability nor between the scope of the farming programs and years of education. (5) Nearly 100 percent of the former students had positive perceptions of the supervised occupational experience program. Vocational agriculture students should be encouraged to increase the scopes of their supervised occupational experience programs each year of their enrollment. / Ed. D.