The uncertainty of a future-focused curriculum in New Zealand: The perceptions and practice of six secondary school technology teachers.

Abstract

The Australasian Journal of TechnologyEducation is a peer refereed journal, and provides a forum for scholarly discussion on topics relating to technology education. Submissions are welcomed relating to the primary, secondary and higher education sectors, initial teacher education and continuous professional development, and general research about Technology Education. Contributions to the on-going research debate are encouraged from any country. The expectation is that the Journal will publish articles at the leading edge of development of the subject area.The Journal seeks to publish• reports of research,• articles based on action research by practitioners, • literature reviews, and • book reviews.

Secondary technology teachers’ perceptions and practice: Digital Technology and a future-focused curriculum in New Zealand.

“…He perceived a need to foster collaborative relationships with teachers in other schools because he was the only Digital Technology teacher in his school and his colleagues did not understand how the technological area should be enacted. Mike communicated strong beliefs about the purpose of Digital Technology and described a focus on learning that emphasised the development of life skills (Reinsfield, 2018). He acknowledged the creative nature of the subject, explaining that a student's open and investigative mind was more important to him than an ability to develop a fully functioning technological outcome.…”

“…Computational thinking can manifest as learning that requires students to organise actions into systematic or logical stages, such as coding (Mohagheg & McCauley, 2016). The Nature of Technology strand focuses on the relationship between societal need and technological development (MoE, 2007;Reinsfield, 2018). Digital Technology, like the other learning contexts in technology, has evolved from having technical origins, where there is a focus on the processes and/or stages underpinning a product's development.…”

“…As a result of various factors, including teacher perceptions of the purpose of the subject, curriculum content can be minimised to a focus on the development of students' technical skill -in this case, the use of digital tools. Instead, the subject should be represented through a combination of technical and technological thinking, as characterised by an iterative approach to critical, creative, problem-based learning (Reinsfield & Williams, 2017;Reinsfield, 2018).…”

“…As a result of this new curriculum emphasis, there will be an increased need for teachers to teach technology education in a manner that reflects a future-focused approach to learning. This identified focus is likely to be challenging for some teachers because it will require them to de-emphasise the technical nature of the subject and instead extrapolate students' conceptual understandings by engaging in future-focused pedagogies (Reinsfield, 2018). This will inevitably cause tension for some practitioners who appear to be already struggling with the way that the subject is conceptualised, to accommodate the …rapid pace of technological advancement and global connectivity [which] has prompted further calls mandating the revision of current education practices to meet and shift futurist predictions and ideals about how young people prepare for and engage with their futures (Cowie & McNae, 2017, p. ix).…”

“…Personalised approaches to professional learning are necessary to accommodate the diversity of teachers' experiences and perceptions. This personalised approach is most likely to influence a positive change in thinking and practice (Reinsfield, 2018).…”