The purpose of this study was to describe the perceptions of the first year experience of teaching secondary agriculture and to explore the relationships between these perceptions, the characteristics of beginning agriculture teachers, and the types of support provided to beginning teachers. An additional focus of the study was to explore the relationship between the level of commitment to teaching and the perceptions of the first year experience. Information was gathered from secondary agriculture teachers across the U.S. who were in their second year of teaching agricultural education during the 2003-2004 academic year. A survey instrument was created specifically for this study through which information about the perceived experience of the first year, the types of support provided to the beginning teacher during the initial year of teaching, the perceived effectiveness of the support provided, demographic characteristics of the beginning teacher, and the perceived likelihood of teaching secondary agriculture in the future was gathered. Data were analyzed using descriptive and correlational statistics. The 57 variables related to the perceptions of the first year experience were reduced to 14 factors through Principal Component Analysis. Nearly 90 percent of respondents described the overall experience of their first year as very positive, positive, or somewhat positive. The most frequently reported positive experiences included working with students in the FFA, participating in professional development opportunities, and using computers and multimedia in teaching. A majority of respondents also described their relationships with school staff, colleagues, and administrators as positive or very positive. Less than 25 percent of respondents perceived the salary in relationship to the time required as positive or very positive. Most respondents reported negative perceptions of working with students in the classroom who don't want to be there and in dealing with problem student behavior. While nearly three-fourths of the respondents reported they were highly likely to teach secondary agriculture one-year from the time of the survey, less than one-third reported they were highly likely to do so at five years, and only 15% reported they were highly likely to do so twenty years from the time of the survey. / Graduation date: 2004

The purpose of the study was to determine the attitude of eastern region secondary agricultural teachers toward the Future Farmers of America (FFA) and the relationship of selected factors to that attitude. To accomplish this purpose the following factors were examined: (a) years of vocational agriculture teaching experience; (b) number of teachers in the vocational agriculture department; (c) length of the annual teaching contract; (d) area of primary teaching assignment; (e) previous length of active FFA/NFA membership; (f) highest educational level attained; (g) undergraduate college degree major; (h) number of duties performed; and (i) location of the school community (rural or urban/suburban). The population for the study consisted of 2,966 agricultural teachers who were employed in the FFA Eastern Region during the 1978-79 school year. A modified stratified random sampling technique was used to select a sample of 425 teachers for the study. Three hundred and seven (72.23 percent) of the teachers in the sample responded to the survey instrument. The two-section instrument used in the study was developed by the researcher. The first section of the instrument consisted of ten questions designed to obtain personal and departmental information about the respondents. The second part of the instrument consisted of 37 attitudinal statements which were developed from information obtained from vocational agriculture teachers, a review of the literature, and the FFA aims and purposes. Each statement had six Likert-Scale type choices. Respondents were instructed to circle the response which corresponded the closest to their true feelings. The Pearson product-moment correlation and the Chi-square test of independence were used to determine if a relationship existed between the variables selected for the study and the agricultural teachers' attitude toward the FFA. A significant relationship was found between the agricultural teachers' attitude toward the FFA and the number of years of agricultural teaching experience, the location of the school community, the length of agricultural teachers' contract, the previous length of agricultural teachers' active FFA/NFA membership, and the agricultural teachers' undergraduate college degree major. It was concluded that based on the scores obtained on the FFAA attitudinal Scale, the agricultural teachers of the FFA Eastern Region had a positive attitude toward the FFA. / Ed. D.