Teacher perceptions of relatedness in school-based agricultural education: A mixed methods study

This exploratory sequential study explored teacher perspectives about building relatedness in their School-Based Agricultural Education (SBAE) program by utilizing semi-structured interviews, and the data were used to build an instrument to further examine the use of relatedness. In the qualitative phase, we utilized a basic qualitative design and purposively sampled (n = 8) Ohio teachers. We found that teachers shared four relatedness themes in their SBAE program: attainable relationships, student commitment, accessible mentorship, and student collaboration. In the quantitative phase, a stratified probabilistic sampling of our target audience (n = 320), which was the National Association of Agricultural Educators (NAAE) Region IV teachers. The quantitative results demonstrated that teachers perceived that it was somewhat true that each of the relatedness themes were present in their programs. Additionally, it was found that demographic data had no relationship to the presence of the relatedness themes. From these findings, it is recommended that SBAE teachers use pedagogical and programmatic strategies that allow the four themes of attainable relationships, student commitment, accessible mentorship, and student collaboration to flourish within their SBAE program.