Workload, understaffing and pressure are the three reasons teachers face when teaching food and farming education to children.
1376 teachers responded to AHDB Teacher Research survey, conducted by YouGov, to understand current practising teachers’ needs and priorities.
The research is part of the new AHDB Education Strategy and three-year partnership with the British Nutrition Foundation (BNF), to increasing children’s understanding of where and how their food is grown, reared, processed and produced.
The survey found workload, understaffing and pressure to meet targets are the key challenges faced by teachers.
Finding new resources and the time needed to become familiar with a topic are the main barriers to introducing new topics into their teaching.
The research highlighted a clear difference between primary and secondary teachers in specific areas, including planning lessons, school trips and where they look for resources.
The research will provide data to benchmark and subsequently track over the next few year’s teachers’ knowledge of our industry and their needs for resources and training.
'Needs of teachers'
AHDB found the market for training is strong, with the majority of teachers doing free or paid-for-training at least once a year.
Price, practical applications, links to the curriculum and location are the most important considerations in choosing training.
Roy Ballam, Managing Director and Head of Education at BNF said: “Working together reduces duplication and allows us both to focus on what’s important and ensuring that teachers and their students have access to credible classroom materials and training.”
Paul Robertson, AHDB Senior Education Manager, said: “It is really important to understand the needs of teachers so that we can provide them with the resources and training they need to deliver food and farming information to children in the classroom.”
Alongside, the online survey of over 1,300 teaching professionals, four face-to-face focus groups and three online focus groups took place across the UK. The research was carried out during, 15 November – 6 December 2017 and 27 March 2018.
