University of Minnesota. Dept. of Agricultural Education.

The Educational Policies section of the 1911-1912 President's Report noted, "The widespread introduction of vocational education has suddenly created a demand for teachers of manual training, domestic science, and agriculture." To that end, the Board of Regents established a department of Agricultural Education in the College of Agriculture that would work in cooperation with the College of Education. Agricultural Education continued for several decades as an academic unit of the College of Education, administered jointly with the College of Agriculture. After several changes in department name and college organization structure, in July 2009, Agricultural Education became an academic department of the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, as a unit of the Division of Applied Economics and Agricultural Education.

From the description of Department of Agricultural Education records, 1907-1991 (bulk 1920-1959). (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis). WorldCat record id: 747532883

“In accordance with the action of the Legislature requiring the establishment, in the University, of a College of Education, the Board of Regents at a meeting held December 12th, 1906, voted to establish such a college,” noted the 1905-1906 Biennial Report of the Board of Regents. That same year, the University’s General Catalogue included a section on Agriculture under the new College of Education’s Courses of Instruction. The courses were planned to “meet the increasing demand for a knowledge of the elements, at least, of agriculture on the part of graded school principals, rural school teachers, county superintendents of schools and others concerned with education in the agricultural sections of the state.”

D. D. Mayne, Principal of the School of Agriculture, lead the instruction for the Agriculture courses within the College of Education.

The Educational Policies section of the 1911-1912 President’s Report noted, “The widespread introduction of vocational education has suddenly created a demand for teachers of manual training, domestic science, and agriculture.” To that end, the Board of Regents established a department of Agricultural Education in the College of Agriculture that would work in cooperation with the College of Education.

The 1911-1912 President’s Report also announced the appointment of Ashley V. Storm as Chief of Agricultural Education, who was described as “one of the recognized leaders of agricultural education” who would provide guidance for “a four years' college course designed to train teachers of agriculture and allied subjects” which would be “fulfilling a duty and insuring to the State a permanent leadership in the newer type of education.”

At their June 7, 1916, meeting, the University Board of Regents voted “to approve the…formulation of principles of organization for the unification of teacher training in the University” which included, among other principles, that the “College of Education is the University organ upon which responsibility for teacher training is placed.”

Agricultural Education continued for several decades as an academic unit of the College of Education, administered jointly with the College of Agriculture. In the 1950s, an expanded focus emerged for how a degree in Agricultural Education could be used. The 1958 College of Education Catalogue noted that the curriculum was designed for students who plan to teach agriculture in public high schools and “adapted to the needs of agricultural extension workers and others preparing to farm or to work in rural areas…and provides comprehensive training in technical agriculture and permits emphasis upon such fields as dairying, agronomy, agricultural economics, horticulture, animal husbandry, soils, and mechanized farming.”

Agricultural Education experienced the following department name and administrative unit reporting changes:

Heads of Agricultural Education:

From the guide to the Department of Agricultural Education records, 1907-1991, (bulk 1920-1959), (University of Minnesota Libraries. University of Minnesota Archives [uarc])