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Abstract
Agriculture remains Malawi’s economic backbone, yet secondary school students demonstrate negative attitudes toward the subject. This mixed-methods study investigated the causes of these attitudes among 90 students, six teachers, and three head teachers from three secondary schools in Phalombe District. Data collection utilized focus group discussions and interviews, which were analyzed through thematic analysis and descriptive statistics. The results revealed learner-related factors (57%) as the primary contributors, including limited career awareness and negative agricultural work associations. Students (44.4%) reported attention deficits during lessons, while resource inadequacy affected all the schools. Key recommendations included improved resource provision, career sensitization, role model exposure, and increased practical work. The findings suggest that multifaceted interventions addressing learner perceptions, teacher capacity, curriculum design, and resource allocation are essential for improving agricultural education outcomes and supporting agricultural development in rural Malawi.
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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Article Type: Research Article
Agricultural and Environmental Education, Volume 5, Issue 1, June 2026, Article No: em011
https://doi.org/10.29333/agrenvedu/17948
Publication date: 18 Feb 2026
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