Sustainable Agriculture: Teacher Beliefs and Topics Taught

Sustainable agriculture (SA) is not fully understood. What is being taught about SA by high school agriculture teachers is also unclear. The purpose of this study was to identify the beliefs of high school agriculture teachers about SA and to examine the extent they teach SA. A mailed questionnaire was used to collect data from a random sample of 844 teachers in the North Central Region (NCR) of the United States. Teachers agreed to concepts about SA and taught selected SA topics to a moderate extent, emphasizing topics related to ecological and social dimensions of SA compared with topics having economic dimensions. In addition, teachers indicated the following topics to be most frequently taught: soil testing, crop rotation, food safety, water quality, and use of animal manure. Results of this study indicated that agriculture teachers do not include much about SA in their curricula. Further investigations into the barriers regarding infusion of SA into the curriculum would help explain what is required to enhance instruction in this subject matter.