42 Educators’ Resistance to the Technology and Engineering Education Transition By Kenneth L. Rigler Jr. ABSTRACT from a traditional industrial arts curriculum The purpose of the qualitative grounded (Kelley & Wicklein, 2009; Spencer & Rogers, theory study was to explore why industrial 2006), and as a result they have resisted this arts educators resisted organizational change transition (Sanders, 1997; Spencer & Rogers, to technology and engineering education. An 2006; Wright et al., 2008). Despite significant exploratory, grounded theory method was used efforts from the International Technology and to identify new theory related to educators’ Engineering Education Association (ITEEA) resistance because the current literature did not to establish technology education as a broad- provide a theoretical perspective about why based academic core discipline for technology industrial arts educators have resisted the change. literacy, it has often remained as an elective The sampling frame was derived from a database under the umbrella of career and technical The Journal of Technology Studies The Journal of Technology of 379 secondary technology and engineering education (Dugger & Johnson, 1992; Wright et education teachers in the state of Kansas, and al., 2008). These discrepancies have created a sample size of 13 participants was needed to division among professionals in the field and reach theoretical saturation of the phenomenon. confusion regarding the overall purpose of The data for the study was collected through the discipline (Katsioloudis & Moye, 2012; observations and face-to-face semi-structured Wicklein & Hill, 1996). interviews with in-service industrial education teachers. Data collected from the observations LITERATURE REVIEW and interviews were analyzed using the three- The highest ranked future critical problem phase classic grounded theory coding technique. for the technology and engineering education Data analysis and interpretation resulted in the discipline reported by Katsioloudis and Moye emergence of three substantive theories related (2012) was related to school counselors who to the study phenomenon: (a) inefficacious did not understand technology and engineering transition to technology and engineering education. This was not surprising because education, (b) value for technical learning, Kelley and Wicklein (2009) emphasized that and (c) industry demand-based change. technology education has a history of generating new program titles with little curricular keywords: educator resistance, technology changes. What started as manual training in education, engineering education, industrial the 1880s changed to manual arts in the early arts, grounded theory 1900s, then to industrial arts in the 1930s, then to industrial technology in 1970s, then to EDUCATOR RESISTANCE TO THE technology education in the 1980s, and then TECHNOLOGY AND ENGINEERING EDUCATION TRANSITION most recently to technology and engineering education in the 2000s. As the curricular focus Technology and engineering education is a and content has been modified with each name school discipline that has a century-long history change, it has created ambiguity and confusion of being redefined (Asunda & Hill, 2008). for all stakeholders involved in the discipline With each transition, the theoretical place and (Katsioloudis & Moye, 2012). purpose of the discipline within the schools has been modified, which has created a growing Technology Literacy as the Curricular Focus gap between the discipline’s theory and practice Around the turn of the 21st century, the (Lauda, 1984; Wright, Washer, Watkins, & International Technology Education Association Scott, 2008). Even though program titles within (ITEA) developed multiple publications to the discipline have changed from industrial clearly articulate its purpose and focus for the arts to technology and engineering education, discipline centered on educating all students there are still a significant number of secondary for technology literacy. Relating to technology industrial arts educators who continue to teach literacy, Ritz (2009) conducted a Delphi study with the ITEA leadership board with the purpose and identified 13 engineering concepts generated 43 of articulating goals for the K12 technological from over 100 original themes. The study and Engineering Education Transition Educators’ Resistance to the Technology literacy programs. The top five essential goals helped identify that in order to appropriately for technological literacy programs identified in integrate a focus on engineering education, the the study included: curriculum would need to incorporate a higher 1. Describe social, ethical, and environmental level of scientific and mathematical concepts impacts associated with the use of particularly in the areas of statics, dynamics, technology. thermodynamics, stresses, deflections, and loads (Custer et al., 2010). 2. Become educated consumers of technology for personal, professional, and societal use. Career and Technical Education as the Curricular Focus 3. Apply design principles that solve Career and technical education, formerly engineering and technological problems. known as vocational education, has had a very 4. Use technological systems and devices. real, yet covert relationship with technology and engineering education. The hidden 5. Use technology to solve problems. relationship has most notably been due to the (Ritz, 2009, p. 59) fact that the leaders of the technology and engineering education have worked for decades A comparison between Ritz’s (2009) study and to differentiate and separate the two content the data collected by Bame and Miller (1980) as areas (Kelley & Wicklein, 2009). However, the part of the Standards for Industrial Arts Programs evidence from the literature has demonstrated a project clearly articulated the differences connection between technology and engineering between the former industrial arts purposes and education teachers and career and technical the modern goals for technology education. In education (Kelley & Kellam, 2009; Moye, the Bame and Miller (1980) study, the middle Dugger, & Starkweather, 2012; Wright et al., and high school industrial arts teachers identified 2008). Many state departments of education the top two purposes for industrial arts as (a) have categorized technology and engineering to develop skill in using tools and machines education as a sub-category under the umbrella and (b) provide technical knowledge and skill. of career and technical education for several The emphasis of the industrial arts curriculum decades (Dugger & Johnson, 1992; Moye et al., was clearly on skill development, whereas the 2012; Spencer & Rogers, 2006). top technology goals were focused on broad- based, knowledge-oriented concepts relating to Another example of the relationship between technological literacy. career and technical education and technology and engineering education surfaced in Kelley Engineering Design as the Curricular Focus and Wicklein’s (2009) study as they examined Throughout the 21st century, during the same the inclusion of engineering design in technology time the ITEA leadership was articulating education’s curriculum. The participants the discipline’s role and purpose in teaching reported that the application of engineering technology literacy, the leadership also began design through the development of basic to introduce an additional curricular focus for skills using tools was emphasized and not the technology education—engineering (Asunda application of math and science. Kelley and & Hill, 2008; Pinelli & Haynie, 2010). In Wicklein (2009) interpreted this emphasis 2010, the ITEA changed its name to the to indicate that a significant percentage of International Technology and Engineering technology educators had not transitioned to the Educators Association (ITEEA) with the recommended broad-based engineering design purpose of incorporating engineering education curriculum and instead emphasized tool skill into the technology education curriculum development more closely related with career (International Technology and Engineering and technical education. Educators Association, 2010). To help clarify the relationship between technology and The breadth of curricular focuses including engineering, Custer, Daugherty, and Meyer technology literacy, engineering education, (2010) conducted an emergent qualitative study and career and technical education has created 44 division amongst the professionals in the and values of experienced educators who were field and confusion as to the overall purpose trained before, during, and after the transition of technology and engineering education from industrial arts to technology education. (Katsioloudis & Moye, 2012; Wicklein & Hill, The sampling frame was derived from a database 1996). The quantitative results in the literature of 379 secondary industrial arts/technology have indicated that a significant number of education teachers in the state of Kansas. secondary industrial arts educators have resisted Maximum variation purposeful sampling the transition to technology and engineering and theoretical sampling techniques were education and have instead continued to teach used to increase the potential for naturalistic from a traditional industrial arts curriculum generalization and extrapolation of the study (Kelley & Wicklein, 2009; Spencer & Rogers, findings (Patton, 2001) and to select participants 2006; Wright et al., 2008). However, there that provided related variations to