Department of Agricultural Education & Studies

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Graduate Programs: Greg Miller 515-294-2583 / Undergraduate Programs: Mike Retallick 515-294-4810

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Graduate Student Scholarly Work

Kalme, N. (1998). Perceptions of agricultural education programs by Iowa secondary school principals. Master’s thesis.

The primary purpose of this study was to determine principals’ perceptions of secondary agricultural education programs in Iowa high schools.  The secondary purpose was to determine relationships of principals’ perceptions of agricultural education programs and various demographic variables.

The population of the study included all principals in Iowa high schools that had agricultural education programs during the 1997-1998 academic school year (N=237) as identified by the Iowa Department of Education (1997).  A stratified random sample consisting of 147 principals was selected.  The researcher-developed questionnaire was determined to be valid by a panel of expert judges.  Field test reliabilities ranged from .63, to .89.

Four mailings over eight weeks yielded a 91.2% response rate.  Quantitative data were analyzed with SPSS using descriptive statistics and measures of central tendency.  The alpha level was set a priori at .05.

Overall, principals expressed favorable perceptions of those programs.  Principals perceive students enjoy agricultural education courses.  Principals believed agricultural education courses reinforcing learning in academic courses.

The overall knowledge or familiarity level of agricultural education programs by principals is generally positive.  Principals believe agricultural education teachers are high quality teachers, but do not believe they are more effective than most other teachers are.

Principals generally tend to support agricultural education programs.  Principals disagreed with the statement that agricultural education courses provide little for students’ intellectual development.

In conclusion, Iowa high school principals are supportive of agricultural education programs.  Not only did they believe that the agricultural education programs were important to their community, but also believe any high school student can benefit from agricultural programs.

Recommendations from this study are further research should be conducted to determine if principals’ perceptions have a relationship with their practices. This study was limited only to Iowa principals.  A national scope could prove beneficial for the profession.  Along the same lines, this study was limited to schools that housed agricultural education programs.  Furthermore, principals need to provide training sessions to the teachers so that they will know how to integrate other subject materials into their classroom.