Understanding how early-career agricultural education teachers in Kansas perceive support provided through the beginning educator support team program

Abstract

Literature supports the need for effective new teacher induction programs. The Beginning Educator Support Team (BEST) is the culmination of many years of research and was created with the primary goal of serving new agriculture educators in the areas of mentoring, onsite visits, and professional development within the state of Kansas. This qualitative study was created to better understand the effectiveness of each program area and identify what revisions would benefit the current offerings. Seven traditionally certified new teachers in Kansas were asked twenty questions which led to the emergence of six consistent themes. Themes included individual teacher support needs based on context and growth, impact of professional community and collaboration on teachers’ experience, relational trust is essential for effective mentoring and built through the program, perceived support across teaching and FFA advisor responsibilities, impact of agriculture content and profession specific support, and site visit impact. New agriculture teachers in Kansas are benefiting from the implementation of the BEST program. Moving forward, consideration should be given to expanding the size of the team conducting onsite visits, feedback and onsite visits should follow an established framework with an emphasis on constructive feedback that will help the new teachers grow professionally. Content specific new teacher induction programs are a first line of defense against the ever-present challenge of retaining qualified and certified school-based agriculture educators.