Student Perceptions of International Agriculture: The Effects of Vicarious International Experience Intergration in High School Agriculture Education Curriculum

Introduction: Awareness of globalization is increasing, and students are being encouraged to prepare to enter a more internationalized job market. The agriculture industry is no exception. If agriculture students are going to be competitive in the internationalized job market, they must understand the role that globalization plays in the agriculture industry. Studies have indicated deficient knowledge of high school and college undergraduate students regarding international issues, agricultural policies, people and cultures.

Purpose: This study sought to identify high school students’ perceptions of international agriculture. Additionally, the purpose of this study was to determine the effect of curriculum integrated with vicarious international experience on students’ perceptions of international agriculture.

Methods: A high school agricultural educator used his international professional development experience teaching meat processing in Tbilisi, Georgia, to develop internationally integrated curriculum for his secondary agriculture education course in meat science. A census of the students present in the class was used for pre-test/post-test data collection. A ten question survey was used to assess students’ perceptions of international agriculture and its relevance to them.

Results: A paired samples t-test indicated a significant difference in the pre-test and post-test summated scores (M = 37.64, M = 44.14, respectively). As indicated by the mean scores, the post-test summated scores were significantly higher than the pre-test summated scores, t(21) = -10.04, P < 0.01. A Pearson coefficient indicated a large effect size, r = 0.91. This suggests that students’ perceptions of international agriculture were positively impacted by the internationally integrated curriculum.

Significance: The results of this study indicate that high school curriculum integrated with vicarious international experience can positively impact students’ perceptions of international agriculture. Internationally integrated curricula related to food protection and public health should be developed to positively influence secondary agriculture education students’ perceptions.