Agriculture Workforce Training for Collaborative Leadership (AWT4CL)

by Eric Kaufman -- A few months ago, The Leadership Quarterly published an article on “Zombie leadership: Dead ideas that still walk among us” (Haslam et al., 2024) .  The article focuses on the “strong residual commitment to an older set of ideas which have been repeatedly debunked but which nevertheless resolutely refuse to die” (p. 1).  For example, one of the axioms of zombie leadership is that “leadership is a special skill limited to special people.”  This belief persists, despite “mountains of research” that highlight the detrimental effects of leadership approaches based on elitism (e.g., focusing on “high potentials”).  These zombie ideas are problematic because they limit the potential of leadership development.  As noted in the article: “By only looking for leadership amongst leaders we only find it there and bury all signs of leadership from below. By only recognizing, training, selecting and nurturing a few in positions of leadership we ensure that only a few develop the

by Eric Kaufman -- While many students pursue post-secondary education as a way to advance their employment prospects, research shows that a post-secondary degree falls short of this goal far too often. "While policymakers typically think of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) programs as a sure pathway to college-level employment and high wages, the reality is more nuanced" ( "Talent Disrupted" Executive Summary, 2024, p. 2). Many employers are reluctant to hire recent graduates, preferring instead to hire applicants with more experience in the workforce. While the rational varies, employers say recent graduates often cannot handle their workload and tend to struggle with professional behavior, including basics like eye contact (Intelligent, 2023 ). Part of the problem may be the way that we approach college coursework, typically focusing more on students' knowledge than their behavior and their resilience in the face of un

by Ben Casteel   --  Lemurs are the world’s most endangered mammal.  All species of lemur come from one large, isolated island – Madagascar; however, you don’t have to necessarily travel across the globe to see these fascinating creatures.  At this moment, you may be wondering what lemurs could possibly have in common with the training and development of our agriculture workforce.  Actually, there is a lot to learn about lemurs and agriculture, but today we will be examining how the engagement of students with these exotic animals is helping to close the gap in needed employability skills . In last month’s AWT4CL blog post, we heard from esteemed colleague Heather Butler about Facilitating Field Trips and Guest Speaker Sessions for Effective Student Learning and how building in extra time in the planning phase helps to facilitate a truly great field trip.  Over the past few years, I have witnessed students gaining even deeper insight and opportunity for grasping the durable skill cate

By Heather Butler  --  Field trips and guest speakers are a wonderful tool for enhancing course content. They expose the students to real-world applications of the course, as well as introducing them to professionals in the field, which in turn creates informal networking opportunities between the students and the presenters ( Ji et al., 2021 ). However, I have learned over the years through many, many field trips and guest speakers that the experience is only as valuable as the preparation invested before the event. As much as I enjoy connecting students with guest speakers and organizing the events, the effectiveness in my earlier years was very hit-or-miss in terms of student responsiveness and the kinds of questions they asked. Some classes were very gregarious and asked the speakers meaningful, in-depth questions, while other classes were quite timid and unresponsive. In the latter situations, I felt badly for the speakers because it appeared my students were not interested in t

By Megan Seibel  --   Recently, I had the pleasure of listening to a webinar sponsored by several national agricultural education organizations entitled, “Empowering Agricultural Education: Engaging and Retaining Leaders for Future Workforce Preparation.” Human resource experts from BASF , Elanco , and Syngenta shared insights related to wants and needs of future workforce, and how agricultural education can support both educators and students to address these needs in preparing for the future.  While the primary target audience of this session was educators of secondary students, the topics discussed proved to be in direct alignment with the programmatic goals of post-secondary education and training programs. When it comes to leadership skills sought by employers, there are ways to develop and enforce them at multiple times throughout a student’s education. Interest in particular careers may be planted early, so that they come to community college, university, and career and techn

by Samson Adeoye -- With the increasing digitization of agriculture, cybersecurity has become an essential component of the agriculture curriculum ( Drape et al., 2021 ). Agricultural educators at the convergence of agriculture sciences and technology applications need to integrate cyberbiosecurity principles into their curriculum to prepare students to protect digital and biological systems from cyber threats. This integrative education is important not only for protecting sensitive agricultural data but also for ensuring the safety of food supply chains and the development of durable skills ( Aniagolu, 2024 ). The integration of cybersecurity into the agricultural curriculum not only has the benefit of preparing students for technical challenges but also fosters essential soft skills such as collaboration, leadership, and continuous learning. Embedding cybersecurity in agricultural curriculums can transform and empower agricultural students in several ways. Fostering Collaboration

by Curt Friedel -- You may have heard something that we have a leadership gap, with several books and articles more recently being written about this phenomenon. What is the leadership gap? In the simplest way, it can be described as the perception of current leaders being inadequate for the challenges of the future. The leadership gap is supported by research. Consider the following: §   Rosenthal, in the National Study in Confidence in Leadership (2012) – Discovered that 69% agree America is in a leadership crisis. §   Bailey 2017 – Fount that 13% of employees said their boss was dangerously incompetent. §   RandstatUSA (2018) – Indicates that 60% of employees left their jobs or are considering leaving because they don’t like their supervisor. A few key points are indicated in these citations. The leadership gap is global, it is across industries and beyond politics and started before the Covid-19 international pandemic. This is a small selection of research one can find wi

by Samson Adeoye -- As we approached the end of the year 2023, Dr. Curt Friedel took us on a journey of capturing the year in pictures and keeping memories alive. An insightful blog post that connects reflection with learning and experience. In a seemingly orchestrated order, Dr. Megan Seibel provided an educative blog post on how one may approach a new year with new perspectives, drawing connections to cognitive styles and decision-making. As part of reviewing and reflecting on the previous year, members of the AWT4CL met virtually to discuss their teaching and learning experiences. They shared practical wisdom from engaging with their students based on PDSA (Plan-Do-Study-Act) projects, synchronous and asynchronous learning, and implementation of digital learning badges. The conversation and reflections indicate that the AWT4CL project is creating avenues for cohort members to create engaged learning environments, where instructors create opportunities for students to participate ac