Perkins Professional Development (Voices of the Bluegrass: Breaking Educational Barriers for Kentucky Youth)

Over the past five years, Kentucky has witnessed a rising trend in the number of English language learners (ELLs) enrolled in the public school system. In 2023, Kentucky schools served over 44,000 ELLs (Kentucky Department of Education [KDE], 2024). Unfortunately, only 7.9% of all ELL students attained English proficiency for the 2022 school year (KDE, 2023). This underscores the need for developing educational interventions that assist in improving Kentucky ELL students’ English proficiency. Along with the call to aid in improving education for our ELL students, there is an inherent demand for cultivating agricultural literacy among youth (Cosby et al., 2022). When an individual becomes agricultural literate, it empowers one to make informed decisions about the agricultural industry as well as be able to effectively communicate about the origins of their food (Kovar & Ball, 2013). Further, the increase of agricultural literacy has been positively linked to youths’ intention to pursuing a career in the agricultural field (Zaremohzzabieh et al., 2021). This project presents a unique opportunity to provide accessible agriculture education for ELL students while concurrently engaging agricultural science students in advocacy through an agricultural podcast. A multitude of educators and researchers have cited the benefits of incorporating podcasts into instruction for students’ English language acquisition such as listeners being: (a) exposed to native speakers’ dialect, (b) provided an avenue to understand the use of Over the past five years, Kentucky has witnessed a rising trend in the number of English language learners (ELLs) enrolled in the public school system. In 2023, Kentucky schools served over 44,000 ELLs (Kentucky Department of Education [KDE], 2024). Unfortunately, only 7.9% of all ELL students attained English proficiency for the 2022 school year (KDE, 2023). This underscores the need for developing educational interventions that assist in improving Kentucky ELL students’ English proficiency. Along with the call to aid in improving education for our ELL students, there is an inherent demand for cultivating agricultural literacy among youth (Cosby et al., 2022). When an individual becomes agricultural literate, it empowers one to make informed decisions about the agricultural industry as well as be able to effectively communicate about the origins of their food (Kovar & Ball, 2013). Further, the increase of agricultural literacy has been positively linked to youths’ intention to pursuing a career in the agricultural field (Zaremohzzabieh et al., 2021). This project presents a unique opportunity to provide accessible agriculture education for ELL students while concurrently engaging agricultural science students in advocacy through an agricultural podcast. A multitude of educators and researchers have cited the benefits of incorporating podcasts into instruction for students’ English language acquisition such as listeners being: (a) exposed to native speakers’ dialect, (b) provided an avenue to understand the use of vocabulary in different contexts, (c) introduced to the history and background of the language, and (d) familiarized with new vocabulary and sentence structure in an approachable format (Bausell, 2006; Hur & Suh, 2012; Rossell-Aguilar, 2007). While podcasts provide an innovative outlet for English language learning, it is also a readily available source that can serve as a connection point between the diverse leaders of Kentucky agriculture and their consumers (Chivers et al., 2021). Through collaborating with community leaders, Kentucky agriculturalists, educators and students, the Voices of the Bluegrass project will be curated. Agricultural-based podcasts provide a powerful outlet to elevate the knowledge, stories, and experiences of Kentucky agriculturalists (Roxana et al., 2024). To cultivate imperative workforce skills such as leadership, autonomy, and digital literacy, the agricultural science students will be recruited to work alongside University of Kentucky educators to produce a podcast that highlights the individual voices comprising the landscape of Kentucky agriculture (Tushar & Sooraska, 2023; Indeed Editorial Team, 2024). Further, the University of Kentucky educators will collaborate with community leaders and educators to develop supplemental lessons and resources for each podcast episode that is tailored to improve the learning experience for all ELL students. These educational resources will be guided by the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) model which concurrently focuses on subject content comprehension and language development (Kareva & Echevarria, 2013). Both the agricultural science and ELL students will be exposed to the array of career pathways that can be pursued within the agricultural field while also building community connections.