Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Having a good understanding of animal biology and behaviour and how we humans interact with them in a positive way is essential for both promoting animal welfare and creating sustainable animal husbandry. Therefore, it is important that education for animal caretakers includes knowledge of animal welfare and protection, and that its content remains relevant and up to date. The purpose of this study is to investigate what knowledge regarding animal welfare and protection students acquire from Swedish agricultural high schools within the agricultural and animal care specialization. This was achieved in two steps. The first step was a questionnaire which was distributed to final-year students at agricultural high schools that offer and currently enrol students in the agriculture and animal care specializations. This questionnaire was aimed at understanding what the students perceived to get from their education regarding animal welfare, animal protection and animal welfare inspections. The second step involved collecting and analysing the syllabi, with 17 analysis criteria based on the questionnaire, for the mandatory courses specific to each specialization that included animals in their core content or grading criteria. Of the 23 schools that was asked to participate eight agreed and a total of 80 student answered the questionnaire. The students from the animal care specialization made up the majority of the student that answered the questionnaire. The results from the questionnaire show that students generally perceived their education as good and sufficient for their future professional roles, and they considered the subjects of animal welfare and protection the be important parts of their training. The responses between the specializations did not differ significantly regarding how students chose to define animal welfare or protection. However, there was a difference in how the student perceived they learned about animal welfare legislation and how an animal welfare inspection is conducted. The analysis of the syllabi showed that only three analysis criteria were met by all courses, and no single course met all the analysis criteria. More research is needed to obtain a representative picture of Swedish agricultural high school students’ experiences of their education, as too few schools and students participated in the study to draw any general conclusions.