Factors Influencing the Choice of an Agriculture Specialisation by Primary teachers’ Diploma College Students in Swaziland

Abstract

The choice of a specialisation is one of the lifetime career decisions students have to make when entering college. The purpose of the study was to determine factors that influence the choice of Agriculture specialisation by college student teachers in Swaziland. A desk review and a Modified Delphi technique were used to generate items used in the survey questionnaire for data collection. A census of 351 student teachers from three teacher training colleges was used. Data were analyzed by means of descriptive statistics and multinomial logistic regression. The findings of the study revealed that students’ interest, department’s image, sex and influence by professionals were the predictors for the choice of Agriculture specialisation in the teacher training colleges in Swaziland. The study recommends that the Agriculture departments in the colleges must stage campaigns and craft policies to promote the choice of the Agriculture specialisation. A study should be conducted to determine the influence of the subject combinations that make an area of specialisation on the choice of the Agriculture specialisation.