Technology education in New Zealand secondary schools: Time to realise future-focused and innovative practices.

Abstract

The official New Zealand Curriculum in technology education (MoE, 2007) counters past interpretations of the subject and provides opportunities for teachers to offer future-focused and innovative learning opportunities for all learners, regardless of their social or academic need. Teacher perceptions and the dominant discourse within a teaching community however, influence the way that professionals interpret, make meaning, and develop their professional identity or practice. This presentation will focus on the ways that technology teachers can work in partnership at an organisational level, to support professional ownership and change. It reports upon findings from research that explored how secondary technology teachers’ perceptions and interpretation of the curriculum impacted upon their knowledge for practice. The theoretical concepts include interpretivist and socio-cultural perspectives, as well as activity theory. The research was subjective in nature and designed to explore how understanding can be deduced from a participant’s actions, which are shaped and manifested in culturally meaningful ways. The presentation will propose threshold concepts that can support teachers to work towards learning-centred pedagogies, with a view to maximise the subject’s promise, in praxis.