Aaron McKim

Aaron McKim

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Associate Professor and Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources Education Program Lead
Department of Community Sustainability

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Aaron McKim is an Associate Professor in the Department of Community Sustainability. Aaron’s research focuses on the interaction of individual teachers and the broader agricultural education system. Topics explored include boundaries, work-life balance, and educator margin. Through this work, Aaron has developed the Donut Model for Agriculture Teacher Success which conceptualizes teacher success in a transformative way. Aaron has an established portfolio of funded projects, with current work funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Science Foundation (NSF), and Michigan Department of Education (MDE). His research helps to inform his teaching in AFNR education, which includes preservice teacher education courses focused on pedagogy (i.e., CSUS 222, CSUS 317). In addition to his work in AFNR education, Aaron has a passion for research and teaching within leadership. Aaron’s leadership research seeks to challenge traditional notions of leadership being influence, linear change, and organization and replace, instead, the concept of leadership for sustainability. Leadership for sustainability suggests all members of a system are responsible for guiding that system toward sustainability; thus, the act of leadership being the responsibility of an identified “leader” is challenged. In this scholarship, Aaron positions leadership for sustainability as a required way of thinking to address the increasingly complex and consequential challenges faced by society. Leadership for sustainability presents an exciting opportunity to shape conversations about research and practice related to leadership for many years to come. Aaron’s scholarship on leadership for sustainability guides his teaching of a leadership for sustainability course (CSUS 322).

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Selected Publications

McKim, A. J., Goodwin, C. M., Haddad, B., Sorensen, T. J., Traini, H. Q., & Marzolino, T. A. (2024). The donut model for agriculture teacher success: A model for theory and practice. Journal of Agricultural Education, 65(3), 225-240. https://doi.org/10.5032/jae.v65i3.2764

McKim, A. J., & McKim, L. K. (2023). Enhancing professional development by increasing agricultural educator margin. Journal of Agricultural Education, 64(3), 16-25. https://doi.org/10.5032/jae.v64i3.48

Haddad, B., Traini, H. Q., & McKim, A. J. (2023). We’ve crossed a line: A philosophical examination of systemic implications surrounding SBAE teachers’ attempts at boundary setting. Journal of Agricultural Education, 64(1), 82-95. https://doi.org/10.5032/jae.v64i1.31

McKim, A. J., & Goodwin, C. M. (2021). Emergent opportunities in complexity, leadership, and sustainability. Journal of Leadership Studies, 15(3), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1002/jls.21778

McKim, A. J., Sorensen, T. J., & Burrows, M. (2021). The COVID-19 pandemic and agricultural education: An exploration of challenges faced by teachers. Journal of Natural Sciences Education, 50(1), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1002/nse2.20060

McKim, A. J., Raven, M. R., Palmer, A., & McFarland, A. (2019). Community as context and content: A land-based learning primer for agriculture, food, and natural resources education. Journal of Agricultural Education, 60(1), 172-185. https://doi.org/10.5032/jae.2019.01172

McKim, A. J., Velez, J. J., & Sorensen, T. J., (2018). A national analysis of school-based agricultural education involvement, graduation, STEM achievement, and income. Journal of Agricultural Education, 59(1), 70-85. doi:10.5032/jae.2018.01070

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