The Benefits of Integrating Agriculture Education into the Middle School Classroom

Abstract

Wright, Stewart, & Birkenholz write, “The knowledge and perception of agriculture held by students and adults, often referred to as agricultural literacy, has received increasing emphasis in the literature. The need for agricultural literacy is evident when examining the changes that have occurred in agriculture in the United States” (1994, p. 55). Integrating Agriculture Education into the classroom is a qualitative research study that involves 27 school teachers, school board members and school administrators in order to address the need to offer agriculture courses in schools in Southern, Minnesota. The results allowed comparisons to be made on the benefits of offering agriculture courses in school.