College of Education

Informal science educators play a key role in promoting science literacy, safety, and health by teaching pesticide toxicology to the large, at-risk Latino farmworker population in the United States (US). To understand the experiences of informal science educators and the nature of farmworker education, we must have knowledge of farmworker educators‘ beliefs, yet little is known about these beliefs and how beliefs about teaching, pesticide risk, and self-efficacy might influence teaching environments and practices and potentially inform the field of informal science education. In this exploratory, descriptive case study, we used questionnaires and interviews to investigate the teaching, pesticide risk, and self-efficacy beliefs of 19 farmworker educators in one southeastern US state, identifying salient personal, behavioral, and environmental factors that influence beliefs using Bandura‘s (1986) model of reciprocal determinism. We found that two distinct groups of farmworker educators emerged based on work affiliation. Health care and advocacy educators typically had more learner-focused beliefs, greater concern about pesticide risks, and lower self-efficacy. In contrast, state agency and Cooperative Extension/university educators expressed more teacher-focused beliefs, less cautious pesticide risk beliefs, and higher self-efficacy. Three factors emerged as important influences on these informal educators‘ beliefs: quantity of lessons provided, shared language with learners, and experience with handling pesticides. Study implications include recommendations for future work in informal science education research to explore the role of educators‘ authentic experiences with science, the significance of educators‘ institutional affiliations, and the prevalence of low self-efficacy among educators.

Internationally, efforts to increase student interest in science, technology, engineering,
and mathematics (STEM) careers have been on the rise. It is often the goal of such
efforts that increased interest in STEM careers should stimulate economic growth and
enhance innovation. Scientific and educational organizations recommend that efforts to
interest students in STEM majors and careers begin at the middle school level, a time when
students are developing their own interests and recognizing their academic strengths. These
factors have led scholars to call for instruments that effectively measure interest in STEM
classes and careers, particularly for middle school students. In response, we leveraged the
social cognitive career theory to develop a survey with subscales in science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics. In this manuscript, we detail the six stages of development of
the STEM Career Interest Survey. To investigate the instrument's reliability and psychometric
properties, we administered this 44-item survey to over 1,000 middle school students
(grades 6–8) who primarily were in rural, high-poverty districts in the southeastern USA.
Confirmatory factor analyses indicate that the STEM-CIS is a strong, single factor instrument
and also has four strong, discipline-specific subscales, which allow for the science,
technology, engineering, and mathematics subscales to be administered separately or in combination. This instrument should prove helpful in research, evaluation, and professional
development to measure STEM career interest in secondary level students.

The working and living environments of
farmworkers put them and their families at risk for pesticide
exposure and, consequently, immediate and long-term
health effects. In this study, visual materials for a pesticide
toxicology safety and health curriculum were constructed
by engaging farmworkers in various stages of symbol
development. Twenty-seven farmworkers in two states
participated in this descriptive case study through focused
small group discussions and interviews. Our findings support
the importance of vivid and realistic symbols, the
effectiveness of a traffic-light symbol in communicating
technical information to farmworkers, and the need to
engage low-literacy end-users in the production of educational
materials. This work informs the development of
curricula for other vulnerable populations pertaining to a
variety of health-related topics, as well as discussions
surrounding regulatory proposals to revise the United
States Worker Protection Standard.

Recent media attention has focused on the risks that agricultural pesticides pose to the environment and human health; thus, these topics provide focal areas for scientists and science educators to enhance public understanding of basic toxicology concepts. This study details the development of a quantitative inventory to gauge pesticide risk beliefs. The goal of the inventory was to characterize misconceptions and knowledge gaps, as well as expert-like beliefs, concerning pesticide risk. This study describes the development and field testing of the Pesticide Risk Beliefs Inventory with an important target audience: pesticide educators in a southeastern U.S. state. The 19-item, Likert-type inventory was found to be psychometrically sound with a Cronbach‟s alpha of 0.780 and to be a valuable tool in capturing pesticide educators‟ beliefs about pesticide risk, assessing beliefs in four key categories. The Pesticide Risk Beliefs Inventory could be useful in exploring beliefs about pesticide risks and in guiding efforts to address misconceptions held by a variety of formal and informal science learners, educators, practitioners, the agricultural labor force, and the general public.

Farmworkers are an at-risk occupational group, frequently exposed to pesticides in their working and living environments. Pesticide training for farmworkers is federally mandated, but little is known about the farmworker trainers who provide or
supplement the training. Using questionnaires and semi structured interviews, this qualitative study explored a sample of pesticide trainers (n = 45) in North Carolina. A conceptual
framework that recognizes the trainer as a “person-in-context” guided an examination of trainers’ goals and perceived constraints. Findings indicated that five types of
organizations provide pesticide training. Individuals from these organizations have shared goals to reduce exposure and ensure health for farmworkers. Trainers identified
practical constraints (time, farmworker physical and mental state, physical setting, institutional factors, training, and curricular materials) as restricting goal attainment. This
study improves understanding of pesticide trainers and the context of pesticide training, guiding future interventions. Further, it suggests that the congruence of trainers’ goals
provides a foundation for future collaborations to better meet farmworkers’ needs.