Attitudes Towards the Use of Biotechnology

Agriculture has benefited from the use of biotechnology for hundreds of years; however, recent advancements in recombinant DNA and cloning have brought about much ethical debate. Public concerns range from the disapproval of genetic manipulation for moral reasons to potential dangers and risks of the use of the science (Kloppenburg & Burrows, 1995). To address these concerns and to overcome resistance to innovation, research indicates a need to identify sources of information most trusted by the public as well as to determine the most effective means of disseminating information about biotechnology. As is frequently the case, educators play a critical role. However, even though many high school agriculture education programs have infused instruction about biotechnology into their curriculum, national studies indicate that the instruction is not keeping up with the technological advances in biotechnology. Given that agricultural and science educators are such an important and trusted source of biotechnological information, this study explored the attitudes of high school agricultural and science educators about the use of biotechnology. Like any other adopters of innovation, educators go through a process that involves first becoming aware of the innovation, forming an attitude about the innovation, deciding to adopt or reject the innovation, implementing the idea, and then confirming they made the right decision to adopt the innovation. The objectives of this study were to investigate whether participation in biotechnology training affected their awareness level of the uses biotechnology (awareness of innovation), and their attitudes about the use of biotechnology (forming an attitude). By describing the awareness and attitudes of high school agricultural and science educators about biotechnology, we can then describe where they are in the innovation-decision process and be better able to design training that will be inductive to biotechnology curriculum adoption