Scott A. Beck & Yasar Bodur
Based upon quantitative survey data from 359 students, aged thirty or younger, at a large, state university that serves a relatively balanced rural / urban population, this manuscript outlines what Southern young people, particularly young educators, think they know and what they believe regarding the workers who are essential to their daily diet of fruits and vegetables: America’s immigrant and migrant farm workers. The participants’ attitudes are compared and contrasted with their relevant life experiences and backgrounds such as: gender, race / ethnicity, political affiliation, and agricultural experience. Using a factor analyses, significant clusters of semantically and statistically valid background experience…
Jarred D. Wyatt, Catherine W. Shoulders, & Brian E. Myers
Many researchers in science education have recorded high school student achievement in areas of scientific literacy stemming from socioscientific issues (SSI)-based instruction. The purpose of this study was to describe agriscience students’ argumentation skills following a six-week SSI- based instructional unit according to students’ grade level, socioeconomic status, and experiences in agricultural education. Results indicated students improved their argumentation quality from pretest to posttest, but students’ changes in the number of arguments they offered varied by grade level, socioeconomic status, number of completed agriculture classes, and FFA involvement.