Agricultural/Environmental Education
Objective: To strike out in a new direction of education about agriculture and environment, including its ‘contextual literacy’ and the research trend using topic modeling or meta-analysis. Also, to provide educational support of those who wants to embark agribusiness start-up for youth and the middle-aged.
Journal Articles
Purpose: As the proportion of agricultural content is decreasing in educational curricula, students, especially in urban schools, are exposed to limited learning opportunities concerning agriculture. This study explores the effect of student-level and teacher-level variables on the agricultural literacy of urban elementary school students in the Republic of Korea.
Design: Hierarchical linear modeling was conducted to empirically test the relationship between determinants of students’ and teachers’ characteristics and student agricultural literacy. The data from 1255 students nested within 48 classes of 12 schools in urban and sub-urban areas were sampled and collected, of which 929 samples were used for the research analysis.
Findings: We found that 13.6% of teacher-level variables affected students’ agricultural literacy. Student’s experience with vegetation and naturalist intelligence had a significant effect on their agricultural literacy, as did teachers’ agricultural experiences. Teachers with more experience in agriculture helped students acquire more knowledge.
Practical implication: In terms of lesson planning, an increased focus on participatory approaches are needed to explore children’s experiences holistically to improve their agricultural literacy. Providing teachers with further education and workshops can help students gain an understanding of agriculture, and develop a positive learning environment.
Theoretical implications: This article contributes to a theoretical framework by estimating influential forces to increase agricultural literacy and by considering the classroom strategies for developing it based on the results.
Originality/value: This article demonstrates the value of agricultural literacy and the determinants of its increase using multilevel analysis at the teacher and student level.
Jeong, S. J. (FA), Ma, S. J. (2021). What Determines the Rural In-migrants’ Adaptation to Rural Communities? Focusing on Motivation for Rural In-migration and Job Satisfaction. Journal of Agricultural Education and Human Resource Development 53(1), 1-27.
Abstract:
In-migration to rural areas can be viewed as a life-changing event accompanied by overall changes in workplaces, communities, social norms, culture as well as residences. Therefore, the adaptation to rural communities is the key event for rural in-migrants and we need to pay attention to the difference of adaptation to rural communities depending on their rural in-migration motive. This study identified the effect of type of motivation to rural in-migration (retirement, alternative value, livelihood, and economic types) on the adaptation of rural communities and the mediation effect of job satisfaction(job content satisfaction, job income satisfaction) between them. Using the panel data collected by the Korea Rural Economic Institute, the mediation effects were examined with the help of bootstrapping procedures utilizing SPSS Process Macro version 3.5 (model 4)(Hayes, 2017). Research findings are as follows. Firstly, people with non-economic motivation felt they are well adapted to rural communities than people with economic motivation did. Secondly, non-economic motivation showed a positive mediation effect of job satisfaction (job content satisfaction, job income satisfaction) on adaptation to rural communities, whereas economic motivation showed a negative or non-significant mediation effect. In other words, different mediation effects of job satisfaction on adaptation to rural communities were found depending on the motivation to rural in-migration. Based on these findings, practical suggestions are as follows: diagnosing individual job value at the beginning of rural in-migration preparation period, helping him/her to explore adequate job fields of rural communities, and providing information such as job searching and related policies at the local government level regularly.
Abstract:
Recently, as environmental problems became an issue, efforts have been undertaken to analyze trends in research on the subject of environmental education. This study aimed to explore the research trend of domestic environmental education, based on the paper published in 『Journal of Korean Society for Environmental Education』 by applying topic modeling and semantic network analysis method. The results are as follows: Firstly, program development and outcomes in terms of education, climate change and sustainable development in terms of the environment are mainly discussed. The keyword trend has been expanding over time from program development on specific environmental issues to issues on the program evaluation and the integrated approach to environmental education. Secondly, Environmental education is actively researched in the elementary, middle, and high school units, whereas issues on lifelong education or special education have been of little account. It is necessary to clarify the characteristics of various target audiences and to develop environmental interventions for them. Thirdly, Topic modeling generated 5 topics such as ‘1. Environmental Education Program Materials and Evaluation’, ‘2. Sustainable Development Education and Target’, ‘3. Program Development and Practice’, ‘4. Course Topics of environmental education in school’ and ‘5. Environmental Literacy of Elementary School Students’. Lastly, there has been an increase in interest in environmental education program results and effectiveness. Also, research using an integrated approach (eg sustainable development, competence) has become an issue rather than research using specific environmental materials. By combining the results of topic modeling with network analysis, it was possible to grasp the trend changes and semantic connectivity of environmental education research.
Abstract:
This study aims to explore field cases of social farming programs for the youth’s rural in-migration and to suggest the political and practical directions of the initiative of social farming in Korea. Two cases of the social farm were selected and one operators and two participants of each farm were interviewed. The results are as follows. First, the participants had a firm priority that social farming is based on farming activities and places, and recognized it as the practice of embracing socially vulnerable groups. Second, the hosts were running their social farms based on their own understanding of social farming, which turns out to show different characteristics of the program. Third, the participants joined the program with the motivation of having an experience of rural life, exploration of career paths, and a need a need of community settlement, restructuring their experiences. Based on these results, the direction of social farming for youth’s rural in-migration was suggested.
Abstract:
This study aimed to examine the relationship between agricultural literacy, life experiences with vegetation, naturalist intelligence, and interest on agricultural news among urban elementary school students. The research questions were to confirm the mediation effect of naturalist intelligence on the relationship between life experiences with vegetation and agricultural literacy; the moderation effect of interest on agricultural news on the relationship between life experiences with vegetation and naturalist intelligence; the conditional indirect effect of interest on agricultural news on the mediation effect of naturalist intelligence. The data from 1,255 students of 48 classes from six urban schools and six sub urban schools were surveyed, among which 929 copies were used. Regression analysis was utilized using PROCESS macro model 7 of Hayes (2013). The results obtained are as follows. Firstly, it has been shown that life experiences with vegetation has a statistically significant mediation effect on the relationship between life experiences with vegetation and agricultural literacy. Secondly, the moderating effect of agricultural news attention has been shown to have a significant effect on the relationship between life experiences with vegetation and naturalist intelligence. Thirdly, it has been found that the conditional indirect effect of interest on agricultural news on the relationship between life experiences with vegetation and agricultural literacy through naturalist intelligence was statistically significant. The study tried to empirically examine the relationship between the influential factors of agricultural literacy. It is important to provide students with an experience that stimulates interest and motivation about agriculture and nurtures naturalist intelligence, which improve agricultural literacy.
Abstract:
This study aimed to examine the relationship between agricultural literacy, life experiences with vegetation, naturalist intelligence, and interest on agricultural news among urban elementary school students. The research questions were to confirm the mediation effect of naturalist intelligence on the relationship between life experiences with vegetation and agricultural literacy; the moderation effect of interest on agricultural news on the relationship between life experiences with vegetation and naturalist intelligence; the conditional indirect effect of interest on agricultural news on the mediation effect of naturalist intelligence. The data from 1,255 students of 48 classes from six urban schools and six sub urban schools were surveyed, among which 929 copies were used. Regression analysis was utilized using PROCESS macro model 7 of Hayes (2013). The results obtained are as follows. Firstly, it has been shown that life experiences with vegetation has a statistically significant mediation effect on the relationship between life experiences with vegetation and agricultural literacy. Secondly, the moderating effect of agricultural news attention has been shown to have a significant effect on the relationship between life experiences with vegetation and naturalist intelligence. Thirdly, it has been found that the conditional indirect effect of interest on agricultural news on the relationship between life experiences with vegetation and agricultural literacy through naturalist intelligence was statistically significant. The study tried to empirically examine the relationship between the influential factors of agricultural literacy. It is important to provide students with an experience that stimulates interest and motivation about agriculture and nurtures naturalist intelligence, which improve agricultural literacy.
Projects
Project 1: Social Economic Model for Female Farmers: Focusing on the Development of Convergence Technology Platforms for the Realization of Social Economic Models, Sponsor: Korea Agency of Education, Promotion, and Information Service in National Institute of Agricultural Sciences (NIAS) funded by the Rural Development Administration (RDA), April 2019 – June 2019
Project 2: Reorganization of Education System for Rural In-migrants, Sponsor: Korea Agency of Education, Promotion and Information Service in Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (EPIS) funded by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA), May 2017 – November 2017