ABSTRACT. Career and Technical Education (CTE) emphasizes authentic learning experiences that prepare students for postsecondary education and the workforce; however, less is known about how students experience instructional models that integrate technical learning with community engagement. This qualitative case study examined the Community-Engaged Critical CTE instructional model, an extension of the Critical CTE Framework, in a dual-enrollment construction technology course involving 28 students. Data included interviews, focus groups, surveys, reflections, classroom observations, and student artifacts collected over one semester. Findings indicate that authentic technical projects, student autonomy, collaboration, community inquiry, and authentic public audiences fostered meaningful learning, ownership, civic understanding, and confidence. These findings suggest that community-engaged instructional models can broaden the educational purpose of technical education while strengthening workforce preparation.

ABSTRACT. In 2023, two Tennessee community colleges launched the Next Steps Coaching Project, a high-touch, relational advising program for adult learners. To ensure placement in high-demand, high-wage employment opportunities, the holistic coaching model was designed to provide adult learners with guided career exploration connected with their course and college experiences. Quantitative results from the program’s randomized control trial demonstrated modest, positive impacts of coaching on adult learners’ success. To learn more about adult learners’ experiences working with Next Steps coaches, this qualitative study collected more than 3,000 minutes of qualitative data from interviews, observations, and focus groups with adult learners. Results provide important insights for how community colleges can better engage adult learners in advising and career exploration through holistic coaching.

ABSTRACT. Professional identity development is an important outcome of workforce-oriented education, yet less is known about how it develops in postsecondary career and technical education (CTE) contexts where learners often participate in education and employment simultaneously. This conceptual paper proposes the Professional Identity in Practice Framework, a participation-based framework explaining how authentic occupational participation supports professional identity development among postsecondary CTE students. Grounded in Communities of Practice and Legitimate Peripheral Participation, the framework integrates five interrelated mechanisms: authentic participation, reflection, mentorship, professional socialization, and agency. The framework contributes to CTE scholarship by clarifying how participation in occupational settings supports identity formation and provides a foundation for future empirical research.

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this study was to determine whether a relationship existed between SBAE teachers' knowledge of electrical concepts and their perceived importance to teach electrical skills after participating in a professional development workshop. Guided by the Human Capital Theory, this study examines how a professional development workshop can influence a teacher's technical knowledge and perceptions related to agriculture mechanics instruction. The findings in this research are that few significant relationships existed between participants’ knowledge and perceived importance to teach electricity prior to the workshop.

ABSTRACT. Online job advertisements represent a substantial and largely untapped source of employer-generated communication. While Q methodology researchers have traditionally developed concourses from interviews, focus groups, literature reviews, and other textual sources, there is limited guidance on using recruitment communications as a source of concourse material. This methodological study proposes a systematic framework for transforming online skilled-trades job advertisements into an employer-derived concourse and corresponding Q sample. Grounded in Concourse Theory and informed by naturally occurring data and document analysis literature, the framework outlines six phases, including recruitment communication collection, statement extraction, concourse development, thematic categorization, Q sample construction, and documentation. The proposed framework expands existing approaches to concourse development and provides a transparent, replicable process for future Q methodology research.

ABSTRACT. This study sought to determine if a relationship existed between their knowledge to teach electricity and their ability to perform the electrical skills. Each skill was correlated within the corresponding skill area rather than across skill areas. For example, the knowledge to teach electrical safety in SBAE was correlated to the perceived ability to perform electrical safety.

ABSTRACT. This study investigated whether increased teacher knowledge influenced the recognition and instructional use of existing electrical tools and equipment within SBAE programs. A quantitative research design was utilized to examine relationships between teacher knowledge and tool utilization before and after participation in the professional development workshop.

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between SBAE teachers’ perceived knowledge of electricity and their perceived ability to teach electricity following participation in an electricity-focused professional development workshop.The findings of this study suggest that positive relationships exist between SBAE teachers’ perceived knowledge of electricity and their perceived ability to teach electricity-related skills across the four constructs examined: electrical safety and tools, switches and receptacles, making electrical connections, and electrical testing. The findings also suggest the workshop had an impact on knowledge and ability to teach electrical testing.

ABSTRACT. This study analyzes agriculture teachers’ perception of the importance to teach electricity with their ability to teach electricity. Results showed that while teachers had the ability to teach electricity courses, they felt that the importance of the electricity courses was greater. Compared to when the teachers felt insufficient on knowledge and skills to teach electricity, their perceived importance of it was lower. These findings suggested that the teacher training improved on electricity knowledge and skills and provides more value from teachers of electricity courses. This study highlights the relationship between the ability to teach and teacher perceived importance of electricity knowledge and skills.

ABSTRACT. Individualized Learning Plans (ILPs) can support academic planning, career exploration, and college and career readiness, but implementation is often constrained by staffing, time, training, and consistency. This convergent parallel mixed-methods study examined a structured, automation-supported ILP workflow implemented through a paper-based human-in-the-loop simulation. Using a two-group quasi-experimental design, the study compared outcomes from 128 pre-service teachers assigned to a structured ILP condition or a self-guided comparison condition. Findings indicated higher posttest cultural relevance, student engagement, and user experience in the structured condition, with college and career readiness varying by baseline readiness. Qualitative findings emphasized clearer structure, personalization, motivation, and goal-directed planning.

ABSTRACT. Person-environment fit is associated with satisfaction, persistence, retention, and performance across educational and organizational settings. However, many fit assessments rely on standardized researcher-developed items that may not fully reflect the unique characteristics of specific environments. This conceptual paper introduces Concourse-Based Assessment (CBA), an environment-specific approach that derives assessment content directly from environmental discourse. Drawing on person-environment fit theory, concourse theory and Q methodology, realistic job preview research, and organizational socialization literature, CBA proposes a four-stage framework consisting of concourse development, statement construction, participant engagement, and interpretation. The framework is presented as a tool for reflection, expectation alignment, career exploration, advising, and onboarding. Implications, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.

ABSTRACT. The increasing demand for graduates who possess both technical competence and employability skills has intensified concerns among employers and education stakeholders. Many Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) graduates lack essential soft skills required for effective workplace performance, highlighting the need for improved pedagogical approaches. This paper examines service learning as a student-centered experiential teaching strategy for strengthening technical and employability skills among TVET students. Drawing on a library-based research design, the study synthesizes evidence from scholarly sources to evaluate the effectiveness of experiential learning models. The review demonstrates that service learning enhances communication, teamwork, problem-solving, and civic responsibility while reinforcing technical competencies through community engagement. It is recommended that TVET administrators integrate service learning into program curricula.

ABSTRACT. The results of this study reinforce long-standing concerns in the agricultural education literature regarding insufficient technical preparation among agricultural education teachers. Participants in this study reported low levels of post-secondary coursework in electricity, despite being expected to teach this complex content area in their professional roles. On average, teachers completed only 3.49 post-secondary credit hours in agricultural mechanics, and nearly 60% reported no prior experience teaching electricity. This gap in preparation is critical because electricity instruction requires not only technical skills but also a strong emphasis on safety, making proper training essential for protecting both teachers and students.

ABSTRACT. This study examined discrepancies between in-service CTE teachers' perceived importance of and reported development in leadership competencies. Participants (N = 133) rated 35 competencies on five-point importance and development scales. Using Borich's mean weighted discrepancy scores (MWDS), the largest training gaps emerged in highly valued competencies: self-responsibility, job-specific technical competence, interpersonal competence, occupational technical competence, and computer literacy. These findings reframe professional development planning from broad coverage toward targeted, gap-aligned investment. Interpreted through a Competency-Based Teacher Education framework, the discrepancy hierarchy identifies competencies where teachers feel least prepared despite valuing them highly. Implications support data-informed PD prioritization, mentorship design, and iterative refinement of CBTE models for CTE.

ABSTRACT. This study explored the impact of an electricity workshop on School-Based Agricultural Education (SBAE) teachers’ ability to teach electricity. SBAE teachers possessing the self-efficacy related to the skills they must teach is crucial. SBAE teachers can acquire these skills by attending professional development for topics they have little training in. This study was guided by Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory. Data were collected using pre and post-paper-based tests on the SBAE teachers’ change in perception of ability to teach four electrical constructs. The results showed that each construct had a positive change