Counselors' knowledge of and attitudes toward careers in agriculture

The purpose of this study was to determine the knowledge junior and senior public high school counselors in Georgia have of careers in agriculture and to examine the attitudes junior and senior public high school counselors in Georgia have toward careers in agriculture. The population for the study consisted of all junior and senior high school counselors in the State of Georgia during the 1975-1976 school term. The population was stratified by gender and geographical location of employment in Georgia, from which a random sample was selected. The instrument used in this research was a three-part Counselor Inventory which was designed specifically for this study. Part A of the inventory consisted of twelve socio-demographic items, Part B was a Knowledge Survey which consisted of twenty items designed to measure knowledge of careers in agriculture, and Part C was an Attitude Scale which consisted of twenty items designed to examine attitudes toward careers in agriculture. Independent variables of the study were gender, age, race, location of high school attended, geographical location of employment in the State of Georgia, experience of the counselor in vocational agriculture in high school, experience in youth organizations, type of institution conferring the bachelor's degree, type of institution conferring the master's degree, status of employment of the counselor, years of experience as a counselor, and years of experience in agricultural and agriculturally related occupations. Dependent variables for the study were counselor knowledge and counselor attitude. Non-parametric statistics were employed in analyzing the data. Significant relationship was found to exist between race and knowledge; and gender, years of experience as a counselor, and years of experience in agricultural and agriculturally related occupations when correlated with attitudes. A significant relationship was also found to exist between counselor knowledge and counselor attitude. There was a significant relationship between counselor knowledge and race. White counselors tended to be more knowledgeable of careers in agriculture than black counselors. However, black counselors tended to have more positive attitudes toward careers in agriculture than white counselors. Nevertheless, the level of relationship was not significant. A significant relationship existed between counselor attitudes and gender. Female counselors tended to have more positive attitudes toward careers in agriculture than male counselors. Although, male counselors tended to be more knowledgeable of careers in agriculture than female counselors. However, the extent of the relationship was not statistically significant. There was a significant relationship between counselor attitudes and years of experience in agricultural and agriculturally related occupations. Counselors with 11 or more years of experience in agricultural or agriculturally related occupations tended to have more positive attitudes toward careers in agriculture than those with 0-5 or 6-10 years of experience in agricultural occupations. Although, counselors with 0-10 years of experience in agricultural occupations tended to be more knowledgeable than those with 11 or more years of experience. The extent of the relationship was not significant. A significantly positive correlation of .13 existed between counselor knowledge and counselor attitude. The zero order Pearson product-moment correlation was used in analyzing the data. Counselors who had vocational agriculture experience in high school were not as knowledgeable of careers in agriculture as those counselors who did not have vocational agriculture experience in high school. This finding compares favorably with the findings of Laborde (1973). The attitudes of counselors who did not have vocational agriculture experience in high school tended to have more positive attitudes toward careers in agriculture than those counselors who had vocational agriculture experiences in high school. The level of relationship was not statistically significant.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ed. D.

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Vocational and Technical Education

Department dc:contributor.department

Vocational and Technical Education

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Year dc:date.issued

1976

Author dc:creator

• Hicks, Ira

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10919/87308

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/87308