| In an attempt to increase the number of Agricultural Education programs, diversify the enrollment of Agricultural Education students, and make an effort to increase the agricultural literacy of urban students, it is imperative to establish more agriculture programs in urban areas. As a result, there must be an adequate supply of agriculture teachers who are willing to pursue and maintain teaching positions in urban schools.; The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the decisions of agriculture teachers to teach in urban schools. To carry out this study, a criterion sample was used to select nine individuals who graduated from a teacher education program and had been teaching in an urban school for one to eight years. Specifically, the interview process was used to investigate the factors that influenced agriculture teachers' decisions to teach in urban schools, the experiences that agriculture teachers have had while teaching in urban schools, and the outlook on the longevity of their careers in urban schools.; The categories relevant to the teachers' decisions to teach Agricultural Education included teacher background and decision to pursue teacher certification in Agricultural Education. The categories significant to the teachers' decisions to teach Agricultural Education in an urban school included prior experience in urban schools, desired location, decision to teach in a particular school, level of influence from family, participants' perceptions of urban schools, and participants' perceptions of Agricultural Education in rural schools. The categories that emerged from the data specific to the participants' experiences while teaching in an urban school included benefits to the teacher, contribution of cultural diversity to the classroom environment, level of parental support, administrative support for Agricultural Education, administrative obstacles to teacher vision, Agricultural Education curriculum in urban schools, value of Agricultural Education to urban students, FFA in urban schools, obstacles to FFA involvement, Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) in urban schools, and school characteristics. The category pertinent to agriculture teachers' outlooks on their teaching tenure in an urban school identified multiple influences on the participants' decisions to continue teaching at their current schools. |
