Assessment of beliefs about extension and innovation in 8 different countries using a validated Likert-type scale

LANDINI, FERNANDO

Negril

Encuentro; 10th GFRAS Annual Meeting (Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services); 2019

Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services

Extension practitioners can adopt different approaches, based on different beliefs about extension and innovation. Tools to assess these beliefs are relevant for research, as part of institutional self-assessment processes, for making decisions about human resources or for profiling university students or graduates. With the support of multiple international experts, a Likert-type scale to assess beliefs about extension and innovation was developed. Likert-type scales are composed of a collection of items that respondents have to rate in terms of their degree of (dis)agreement (e.g. ?The transfer of technologies is rural extension?s main task?). After the statistical analysis, results showed the existence of 5 different topics assessed by the scale: ?Dialogue and horizontal coordination?, ?Transfer of Technology? (ToT), ?Tendency to blame on farmers?, ?Participatory, farmer-led extension?, and ?Self-critical attitude?We applied the Likert-type scale in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria and Paraguay. During the 10th GFRAS Annual Meeting the results of the study will be presented and questions like these will be answered: In which countries a participatory, farmer-led extension is more valued? Where extension workers are more reflective and self-critical? Is the traditional ToT approach more frequent in a specific country or age group? Additionally, the scale will be provided to interested participants (in English, Spanish or Portuguese)