I think education is the engine that keeps agriculture and society evolving.
Professor
My work centers on how agricultural knowledge is created, taught, and applied in real-world settings. I focus on the intersection of agricultural education, leadership, and communication—examining how students and professionals learn, reflect, and lead through experiential and community-based approaches. And I have a real interest in identifying and defining the context by which our current systems of education operate, primarily through historical research in Agricultural and Extension education.
I’m not exactly sure why I teach. I just like to teach. I think education is the engine that keeps agriculture and society evolving. I derive a great deal of satisfaction in helping people learn how to make sense of theory and link it to their own experiences. I see teaching as an opportunity to develop people – To help them develop their own potential, to help guide their self reflection, and help them achieve their goals.
I believe that teaching is most powerful when it helps learners bridge knowledge, experience, and reflection on the new information they are receiving through their senses. Teaching is a facilitation process that helps learners transfer information into knowledge.
Ultimately my goal is that my students become thoughtful practitioners and leaders who can translate theory and research into practice. Overall I believe that the education students receive at the University of Georgia should make life better for the citizens of Georgia and those beyond its borders. I want to see it sustained rural communities and honor the enduring values that we embrace in our society.
I actually started my teaching career as a sophomore in high school when I was tasked with the responsibility of helping train A dairy judging team through the FFA organization in my school. By the time I was a senior in high school I was sort of an unofficial teacher. I had my own key to the building and a desk and an office space where I assisted the instructors in community outreach through the FFA program and help them manage the day to day activities in the instructional program. That was back in the 1980s in rural eastern North Carolina when you could get away with crazy things like this.
Dr. Barry Croom has more than thirty years of experience in agricultural and extension education. His career interest developed as a high school junior, when he coached his first dairy judging team for the local junior high school FFA program. Croom began his professional career as a high school agricultural education teacher. While teaching full-time, he earned a Master of Education Degree in Agricultural Education. While a high school teacher, Croom was selected by the National FFA Organization to develop and present in-service workshops to teachers across the United States. His students earned state and national recognition for academic achievement. He was recognized as the Sampson County Schools Teacher of the Year, and received the Honorary American FFA Degree from the National FFA Organization.
In 1996, Croom became an Extension associate responsible for the statewide FFA Program at North Carolina State University. After completing his doctoral degree in 1999, he became an assistant professor in the same department. Croom worked through the ranks to become an Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Professor at North Carolina State University. He has served as an agriculture teacher, teacher educator, extension associate, state education staff member, professor, and department head in agricultural education and agricultural sciences.
Croom has taught courses in leadership, information technology, experiential learning, instructional methodology, educational program planning, and youth development. He has taught more than 30 different courses at the graduate and undergraduate level. Croom maintains a research program that focuses on effective teaching, career and technical education policy, and diversity in agricultural and extension education. He is the author of two textbooks, 46 peer-reviewed publications, and more than 20 popular publications.
For part of his outreach and engagement efforts, he directed the North Carolina Farm Bureau Institute for Future Agricultural Leaders for several years. Croom led the Oregon Team AgEd Board, and served on the Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation Board, and the Oregon Agricultural Education Foundation’s Summer Agriculture Institute Board. He coordinated the Western Oregon Summer Agricultural Institute.
Barry Croom served as Professor and Department Head for Agricultural Education and General Agriculture at Oregon State University prior to returning to his Native South. Part of his responsibilities included training and development for high school teachers, development of curriculum for agricultural and extension education, and overall leadership for the graduate and undergraduate program.
In 2017, Dr. Croom returned to Southeastern United States to be nearer his family. He provides leadership for the agricultural education program for the University of Georgia Tifton Campus. His personal interests include researching history and genealogy, hiking, camping, and fishing.