THE PROPORTIONATE PARTICIPATION OF DISADVANTAGED STUDENTS IN ACTIVITIES OF THE FUTURE FARMERS OF AMERICA AS RELATED TO SELECTED ELEMENTS OF THE SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT

The focus of this study is the relationship between participation by economically disadvantaged vocational education agriculture students in Chapters of the Future Farmers of America (FFA) and selected chapter practices as well as FFA advisor characteristics.;The following conclusions were supported by the data collected. (1) Agriculture teachers who lived on a farm as youngsters and who were involved in FFA or NFA activities in high school and college were more successful in obtaining participation in FFA activities by disadvantaged agriculture students than those who were not reared on a farm and who had no FFA or NFA experiences in high school and college. (2) Agriculture teachers who utilize the following FFA chapter practices were more successful in obtaining participation in FFA activities by disadvantaged agriculture students than those teachers who did not use these practices: (a) Sharing the decision making processes with FFA members; (b) Surveying the needs of the agriculture students and providing a flexible chapter program composed of FFA activities designed to meet the needs of the students; (c) Using the services of parents and other resource people in the community; (d) Publicizing the accomplishments of their FFA members and (e) Providing rewards to the chapter members in recognition of their FFA accomplishments.;The study was conducted by mailing an instrument to a stratified sample of agriculture education teachers. Group A teachers taught in schools having greater than eighty percent participation by economically disavantaged agriculture students in FFA and group B teachers taught in schools having less than twenty percent participation. The instrument was constructed in two parts with part one collecting data on FFA advisor traits and part two collecting data on chapter practices. The instrument was completed by forty schools in each group.