Affiliation:
1. Mississippi State University, USA
Abstract
A society who is well informed about agriculture and all its processes is a society that will adapt and grow to make informed decisions impacting themselves and their environment. However, Americans are roughly three generations removed from the farm. This disconnect from our agricultural roots can cause misconceptions about food production and agricultural illiteracy. One way to help alleviate this illiteracy is to teach agricultural content in elementary schools. In this chapter, the authors review research on formal and informal agricultural literacy programming in elementary schools and teacher perceptions of teaching such programming. Further, the authors offer directions for future research for members of the agricultural education community including professional development models, cross-disciplinary integration, longitudinal studies, diverse education settings, curriculum development for elementary classrooms, teacher confidence and perceptions, barriers to implementation, technology integration, and policy impact studies.
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