Selected Students' Eurocentric Attitudes About Agriculture

Abstract

Eurocentrism suggests a western model of daily life that should be adopted, because it is seen as the only solution to the world's challenges. Studies identified that students' perceptions of their own global awareness and attitudes toward internationalism reflected ideas of Eurocentrism, and agricultural students exhibited limited international experience and backgrounds. Persaud and others posited that Eurocentric views held by students may be associated with historical socio-cultural conditioning. The purpose of this study was to determine college students' Eurocentric attitudes about agriculture, the factors influencing those views, and how students' attitudes differed between grade levels. A stratified random sample of students (N = 166) was asked to complete an online questionnaire. The instrument measured students' Eurocentric attitudes about agriculture using a Likert-type five-point scale. Students responded whether they strongly agreed, agreed, had no opinion, disagreed, or strongly disagreed with 16 Eurocentric statements about agriculture. Descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, one-way ANOVA (analysis of variance), radar plots) were used to analyze the data. This study showed that selected students had Eurocentric attitudes about agriculture. While upperclassmen held some less Eurocentric attitudes about agriculture than those of underclassmen, Eurocentric attitudes were still represented. Students generally agreed and sometimes strongly agreed with the 16 proposed Eurocentric statements.