Effects of a Recruitment Workshop on Selected Urban High School Students’ Self–efficacy and Attitudes toward Agriculture as a Subject, College Major, and Career

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if selected high school students’ participation in a summer agricultural communications workshop affected their self–efficacy and attitudes toward agriculture as a subject, college major, and/or as a career. Data were gathered from an accessible population (N = 145), from which a purposive sample (n = 94) was derived. Data were collected with researcher–developed questionnaires, adapted from Mitchell’s (1993) study of Ohio State University minority students’ knowledge, perceptions, and career aspirations related to agriculture. Results indicated that urban students’ pre–workshop attitudes were positive toward agriculture as a subject, college major, and as a career, and were significantly more positive after participation in the summer agricultural communications workshops. Students may be more likely to study agriculture, pursue college majors in agriculture, and choose agricultural careers if they favorably viewed teachers’ workshop participation and/or their friends successfully completing workshop tasks. Additional research should be conducted on the importance of teacher influence on a student’s self–efficacy in agricultural science subjects.