Family and Consumer Sciences Field Faculty's Perceptions of North Carolina Cooperative Extension's Department of Family and Consumer Sciences Orientation Training

Abstract

The purpose of this descriptive-correlational study was to determine North Carolina Cooperative Extension (NCCE) Family and Consumer Science (FCS) field faculty's perceptions of the NCCE FCS departmental orientation training for new NCCE FCS field faculty. It also examined relationships that existed between personal and professional attributes and the perceptions of the NCCE FCS departmental orientation training.

The population of the study was 118 NCCE FCS field faculty, and a census was used in gathering the data. A web-based/ mail questionnaire was developed to measure the NCCE FCS field faculty's perceptions of "the availability and or accessibility of ", "applicability of content" and "importance of content" in the NCCE FCS departmental orientation training. The questionnaire was reviewed by NCCE county directors with FCS programming responsibilities for face validity. Cronbach alpha was used to establish reliability.

A final response rate of 79% was achieved. The data were analyzed utilizing the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), Davis (1971) conventions and NUD•IST qualitative data analysis software.

The study revealed that NCCE FCS field faculty considered the NCCE FCS departmental orientation training to be beneficial. The respondents concluded that the NCCE FCS departmental orientation be a combination of face-to-face and on-line training.