Focusing agricultural education research: Strategies for the professor

The community of scholarship between agriculture and education is agricultural education. The agricultural education discipline contributes to agricultural and educational systems by linking the technical areas of agriculture and the humanistic dimensions (Barrick, 1988). It is hard to appraise the impact of the discipline called agricultural education. It is also difficult to see the future potential of agricultural education. It is great when students and visitors from other countries ask questions about the success of agricultural education in the United States. Likewise, it is rewarding when people from other disciplines ask for agricultural education expertise with a new initiative. These people see the contributions that agricultural education has made and/or can make in agricultural and educational development. The 1985 approval of an “Advisory Committee ” for agricultural education research by the North Central Regional Association of State Agricultural Experiment Station Directors expanded the acceptance of agricultural education as a discipline (NCA-24 Committee, 1987). This discussion is on focusing agricultural education research. I have three objectives: 1) to analyze the dimensions of agricultural education, 2) to summarize critiques of agricultural education research, and 3) to suggest strategies for focusing agricultural education research. To accomplish these objectives, I will be building on the work of others in the discipline. The Dimensions of Agricultural Educatio