Global Citizenship: Change in Agricultural Teacher Candidates from a High Impact Experience

Global citizenship is critical to the development of a globally ready 21st century workforce in food, fiber, and natural resources. The global citizenship model utilized in this study includes domains of social responsibility, global competency and global civic engagement. The knowledge, skills, and dispositions of educators are critical factors to the advancement and development of global citizenship in students. Two cohorts of pre-service agricultural teacher candidates occurring in two different programming years from two different agricultural teacher education institutions from different parts of the US were presented the opportunity to participate in a high impact experience through a program lasting a full academic year. We utilized an accepted Global Citizenship Scale modified for the agricultural context and collected data in a pre-post format. Both cohorts of pre-service agricultural teacher candidates increased their global citizenship overall and across all three domains from pre to post assessment after completing the program. Recommendations include continuing and expanding domestic global learning opportunities for teachers to gain necessary global knowledge and skills and further research on differences in gains from domestic to international experiences.