Browsing by Author "White, Amy"

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
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    Advancing Community College Instruction for Agriculture Workforce Preparedness: VCCS Professional Development Day 1
    Kaufman, Eric K.; White, Amy; Nelson, Dalton; Seibel, Megan M.; Westfall-Rudd, Donna M.; Friedel, Curtis R. (2021-06-15)
    This was the first meeting of the professional learning cohort of Virginia Community College System (VCCS) faculty engaged in the Agriculture Workforce Training for Collaborative Leadership project.
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    Advancing Community College Instruction for Agriculture Workforce Preparedness: VCCS Professional Development Day 3
    Kaufman, Eric K.; Ring, Bettina; Seibel, Megan M.; White, Amy; Westfall-Rudd, Donna M.; Friedel, Curtis R.; Nelson, Dalton (2021-07-14)
    This was the third meeting of the professional learning cohort of Virginia Community College System (VCCS) faculty engaged in the Agriculture Workforce Training for Collaborative Leadership project.
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    Agriculture Workforce Stakeholders Highlight Importance of Durable Skills and Networks
    Coartney, Jama S.; Kaufman, Eric K.; Nelson, Dalton; Westfall-Rudd, Donna M.; Seibel, Megan M.; Friedel, Curtis R.; White, Amy; Carmichael, Celeste J. (North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture, 2022-06-20)
    As America’s workforce changes, so does the nature of the work and skills necessary for success. Employers are increasingly in need of a workforce that effectively engages in collaborative leadership. Educational opportunities, such as community college and two-year degree programs, need to include collaborative leadership learning experiences to help build workforce readiness. Debuting findings at NACTA 2019, APLU researchers identified 11 employability skills that were most important to stakeholders and had the largest gaps in terms of readiness. Indeed, the Christensen Institute recently identified “investing in durable skills and durable networks,” as one of the “5 Education Innovation Trends Worth Watching in 2022.”Also, America Succeeds (2021) reports on “The High Demand for Durable Skills.” Findings from three years of action research reveal insights on employability and durable skills for collaborative leadership. Expanding beyond four-year degree programs, project stakeholders include agriculture faculty from nine community colleges and one two-year degree program. These agricultural educators are bridging the gap by refreshing existing workforce development curricula to meet 21st century agricultural industry needs; they are designing, developing, and evaluating leadership curricula for technical and community colleges to prepare the agriculture workforce for effective leadership in an increasingly diverse environment. The study used a semi-structured protocol with two focus groups. Participants, affiliated with agricultural workforce preparation programs, surfaced six key themes: (1) Agreeing with APLU employability skills report, (2) Finding positive benefits in completing internships, (3) Strategizing to build problem-solving skills, (4) Addressing ‘soft skills” assessment challenges, (5) Prioritizing verbal communication skill enhancements, and (6) Learning how to accept faults and mistakes. The relevance of this topic in today’s climate cannot be understated. This action research approach, with stakeholders from multiple institutions, can serve as a model for expanding educational networks to exchange knowledge and share leadership curricula.
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    Agriculture Workforce Training for Collaborative Leadership in Agriculture and Beyond
    White, Amy; Kaufman, Eric K. (2022-04-07)
    This panel seeks to connect people who develop, promote, and prepare future leaders of the agriculture workforce. The panelists represent a myriad of educational and programmatic networks, which can help Virginia educators connect students with opportunities. While Agriculture will be the primary focus, the discussion surrounding experiential learning and workforce training is applicable to many disciplines, and discussion from all fields is encouraged and welcomed.
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    Building Durable Skills and Networks: Leadership Educators' Contributions to Workforce Readiness
    Coartney, Jama S.; Kaufman, Eric K.; Westfall-Rudd, Donna M.; Seibel, Megan M.; Friedel, Curtis R.; White, Amy; Carmichael, Celeste (Association of Leadership Educators, 2022-06-26)
    As America’s workforce changes, so does the nature of the work and skills necessary for success. Employers are increasingly in need of a workforce that effectively engages in collaborative leadership. Educational opportunities should include collaborative leadership learning experiences to help build workforce readiness. Findings from action research reveal insights on durable skills and networks for collaborative leadership. Agricultural educators are bridging the gap by refreshing existing workforce development curricula to meet 21st century agricultural industry needs. Taking an activity-oriented approach, Leadership-as-Practice may assist in providing additional understanding of leadership practices or phenomena (Raelin, 2011, 2020). The purpose of this project was to reveal ideal approaches to integrating collaborative leadership education into existing curricula. The study used a semi-structured protocol with two focus groups. Participants, affiliated with agricultural workforce preparation programs, surfaced six key themes: (1) Agreeing with APLU employability skills report, (2) Finding positive benefits in completing internships, (3) Strategizing to build problem-solving skills, (4) Addressing “soft skills” assessment challenges, (5) Prioritizing verbal communication skill enhancements, and (6) Learning how to accept faults and mistakes. This action research approach, with stakeholders from multiple institutions, can serve as a model for expanding educational networks to exchange knowledge and share leadership curricula.
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    Building Professional Collaborations between Community College and Land Grant University Faculty
    Coartney, Jama S.; Kaufman, Eric K.; Westfall-Rudd, Donna M.; Seibel, Megan M.; Friedel, Curtis R.; White, Amy; Carmichael, Celeste (American Association for Agricultural Education, 2022-05-17)
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    Enhancing Workforce Readiness Through a Convergence of Networks and Collaborative Leadership
    Coartney, Jama S.; Kaufman, Eric K.; Westfall-Rudd, Donna M.; Seibel, Megan M.; Friedel, Curtis R.; White, Amy; Carmichael, Celeste (2022-09-22)
    The future of work is changing, and educational opportunities, approaches, and resources need to change too. Employers need a workforce that effectively engages in collaborative leadership, has durable skills, and builds networks. This project integrates educational expertise—workforce alignment, leadership development, and curricular design—of agricultural educators to address future demands.
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    Essential Ingredients for Seasoned Teaching
    Coartney, Jama S.; Westfall-Rudd, Donna M.; Kaufman, Eric K.; Seibel, Megan M.; Friedel, Curtis R.; White, Amy; Carmichael, Celeste (North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture, 2023-06-22)
    More than a decade ago, the National Research Council challenged agricultural education professionals to transform their relationship to the evolving global food and agricultural enterprise. While recent improvements have been documented, technical and community colleges have often been overlooked and underserved. Community college leaders recognize the importance of preparing students for success in a work environment that includes the ability to adapt. While technical and subject matter skills are important, they change over time. Skills, such as communication, collaboration, and leadership, are more durable in nature. These durable skills are much more difficult to teach but are crucial to successful employment. These employability skills are of critical importance to agriculture's workforce. Workforce readiness preparation needs to be integrated into existing agricultural education and curriculum development. We introduce the Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) model for improvement as an overarching framework for piloting, evaluating, and implementing curricular changes in a single course and across multiple sites. PDSA provides a simple, powerful tool to support continuous improvement in the classroom. A partnership between a four-year university and a team of community college partners has yielded research and learning opportunities that suggest benefits of utilizing the PDSA model to integrate employability, durable, and leadership skills into current curriculum. During the 2022-2023 academic year, a cohort of community college faculty incorporated the PDSA framework into the curriculum design process. Examples of this work include improvements to student motivation to learn, group project management skills, and workforce awareness and readiness. The PDSA continuous improvement approach offers a model that anyone can use to expand and enhance educational curricular design.