Committee Chair

Crawford, Elizabeth K.

Committee Member

Rausch, David W.; Taylor, Jessica N.; Deal, Charley

Department

Dept. of Applied Leadership and Learning

College

College of Health, Education, and Professional Studies

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Abstract

The University of Tennessee Extension (UTE) receives 15% of its funding from county governments (University of Tennessee Extension, 2021a). According to Blevins, Jayaratne, Bruce, Bradley, and Stumpf-Downing (2020), the relationship between Extension and county commissioners is vital to the success of county-based programming. Extension agents and specialists program the education services required for agriculture producers to qualify for State Department of Agriculture grants. This study assessed 60 county commissioners’ perception of UTE agriculture education programming efforts. Participants completed a modified version of the instrument utilized by Koon (2006) to assess state legislators’ perception of UTE. Findings suggested there were no differences in commissioners’ familiarity, perceived usefulness, and exposure with UTE agriculture education programs regarding rural and non-rural counties.

Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge my Learning and Leadership Doctoral faculty. They taught me concepts that improved my supervisory skills and sharpened my research skills. In particular: Dr. Rausch for his insistence on the use of data; Dr. Crawford for refining my writing skills; Dr. Harbison for providing the two-week update sessions for the Comprehensive Assessment; and Dr. Taylor, my methodologist, for always inspiring me to grind it out. Others who were instrumental with this accomplishment include: Dr. Simpfronia Taylor and Threvia Williams who assisted me with Word processing issues; Charles Curtiss of the Tennessee County Commissioners Association and Dr. Herb Byrd of the University of Tennessee Institute of Public Service for disseminating the instrument through their listservs; and Andy Holt, Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Agriculture for providing Enhancement Program data.

Degree

Ed. D.; A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Education.

Date

5-2026

Subject

Agricultural extension work--Tennessee; University extension--Law and legislation--Tennessee

Keyword

County Commissioners Perception; University of Tennessee Extension Agriculture Programming

Document Type

Doctoral dissertations

DCMI Type

Text

Extent

xii, 101 leaves

Language

English

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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