Benjamin Swan was raised in a cattle ranching family in Templeton, California and
was active in both 4H and FFA, graduating from Templeton High School in 1992. Swan earned
his bachelor’s degree in agricultural engineering technology in 1997, then began his
master’s degree in agricultural education and earned his teaching certificate in 1998,
all at Cal Poly - San Luis Obispo. 

Swan taught high school agricultural mechanics at Ripon High School (1999-2002) in the
central valley of California while living on and managing the school farm. At the
conclusion of the second year of teaching, he completed his master’s degree and was
encouraged to seek out a doctoral degree to become an agricultural teacher educator. At
the completion of the third year of teaching at Ripon High School, Swan earned a graduate
associate position at The Ohio State University and moved across the country to pursue
doctoral studies. 

Since earning his doctorate, Swan spent four years at the University of Idaho developing
their agricultural teacher education program from 2006-2010. Swan joined his alma mater,
Cal Poly, in the Fall of 2010, working specifically with their agricultural teacher
education program. 

Swan and his wife, Melinda, have 3 boys, Blaze, Bo, and Baxter.

Articles

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Developing Best Practices of Teacher Induction (with Lori L. Moore), Journal of Agricultural Education (2008)

Problems and challenges faced by beginning teachers have been well documented in the literature and...

 

Presentations

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The Relationship Between Student Teacher Heart and Career Intent (with Jamie Cano), North Central Region American Association for Agricultural Education Research Conference Proceedings: Lincoln, NE. (2009)

Students enter an agricultural teacher preparation program planning to teach agriculture. However, career intent appears...

 

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The Relationship of Agricultural Mechanics Teachers’ Confidence in their Mathematic Skills and Confidence in their Ability to Teach Mathematic Skills (with Lori L. Moore and Cody J. Echevarria), Western Region American Association for Agricultural Education Research Conference Proceedings: Park City, UT (2008)

This study assessed Idaho agricultural science and technology teachers that taught at least one agricultural...