Agricultural Teachers' Professional Competency for Working with Students with Special Needs in Iran

Document Type : Original Research

Authors
M. Chizari 1
M. Bijani 2
E. Abbasi 3
1 Professor, Department of Agricultural Extension and Education, College of Agriculture, Tarbiat Modares University (TMU), Tehran, Iran. (First name: Mohammad, Last name: Chizari, Postal Code: 1497713111, Email: mchizari@modares.ac.ir)
2 Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural Extension and Education, College of Agriculture, Tarbiat Modares University (TMU), Tehran, Iran. (First name: Masoud, Last name: Bijani, Tel: +982148292020, Fax: +982148292200, Mobile phone: +989166624222, Postal Code: 1497713111, Email: mbijani@modares.ac.ir), ORCID: 0000-0003-2659-6386, Researcher ID: N-8275-2018
3 Associate Professor, Department of Agricultural Extension and Education, College of Agriculture, Tarbiat Modares University (TMU), Tehran, Iran. (First name: Enayat, Last name: Abbasi, Tel: +982148292071, Fax: +982148292200, Mobile phone: +989126089468, Postal Code: 1497713111, Email: enayat.abbasi@modares.ac.ir), ORCID: 0000-0002-5238-7185
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to identify Professional Competencies (PCs), including General and Specific Competencies (GSCs), of Agricultural Teachers (ATs) working with Students with Special Needs (SSNs), known as exceptional students (1,013 people), in Vocational High School Education System (VHSES) in Iran, within two phases. Accordingly, the main objective of the first phase was to identify General Competencies (GCs) of these teachers. Therefore, in the first phase, the components of teachers’ GCs were taken from theoretical literature and research documents via content analysis and the findings revealed that the GCs encompassed 6 components of Instruction Design (ID), Professional Development (PD), Professional Ethics (PEs), cooperation, Perceived Student Diversity (PSD), and technology. The objective of the second phase of this study was also to find Specific Competencies (SCs) of ATs working with SSNs. This phase of the study was conducted using the classical 3-step Delphi technique. In this respect, the specialized Delphi team consisted of 22 ATs working at Iran’s Exceptional Schools (ESs), selected through purposive sampling method. Finally, the findings reduced to the identification of 24 SCs for ATs working with SSNs, which were then grouped into two categories of Agricultural Competencies (ACs) and Exceptional Competencies (ECs).

Keywords

Subjects

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Journal of Agricultural Science and Technology
Volume 23, Issue 1
January and February 2021
Pages 1-15