Effects of the agricultural science, curriculum, the school environment, and the student's home socio-economic status on attitudes toward careers in agricultural production

The study tested the hypotheses that students' attitudes toward careers in agricultural production were related to (i) attitudes toward agricultural science as a school subject; (ii) curricular inclusion of agricultural science; (iii) urban / rural environmental location of schools; (iv) student's home socio-economic status. The sample (No.666) was randomly drawn from the population of male tenth grade students in Zambia. A questionnaire constructed and pilot tested for the study included (,a) scale to measure attitudes toward careers in agricultural production, (b) scale to measure attitudes toward agricultural science0 Simple regression analysis tested the first three hypotheses while Chi Square was used on the fourth hypothesis. The findings included, that attitudes of tenth grade male students were significantly related to : attitudes toward agricultural science; curricular inclusion of agricultural science; and student's home socio-economic status. No signnificant relation was found between students' attitudes toward careers in agricultural production and urban / rural environmental location of schools. Conclusions included that (i) prediction of students attitudes toward careers in agricultural production might be possible from attitudes toward agricultural science.(ii) Curricular inclusion of agricultural science and student socio-economic status probably had each, a differential effect on students' attitudes toward careers in agricultural production. (iii)Home location might have stronger influence than school location, (iv) Most students (89%) showed positive attitudes toward careers in agricultural production