So What Do Parents Want and Expect from a Technology Education Programme? – An Exploration

Abstract

Everyone seems to have a view on how and what should be taught in our schools and Technology Education is no exception. In New Zealand, as in the United Kingdom, recent legislation has encouraged parents to take a more active role and to voice their opinions (Banks 1994). Satchwell and Dugger (1996) observe that in the current context of educational reform, parents are questioning what students should be expected to know and be able to do. So what do parents want for their children? This investigation briefly documents a new partnership between a College of Education and a primary school in New Zealand. Parents were questioned over the course of the first year of this new partnership, in order to determine their expectations from the Technology programme. The majority of New Zealand primary schools cater for children until year 6. When the children are in year 7 (average eleven years old) they attend an intermediate for two years. Intermediate schools bridge the gap between primary and secondary schools. Children are taught the 'core learning areas' by a classroom teacher, but rotate around a variety of specialists including Technology teachers. Schools in remote areas or with special circum- stances may retain their year 7 and 8 children instead of sending them to an intermediate. These schools are called 'full primary'. The government provides additional money for these children to be transported to another school or Technology centre in order for them to be taught by specialist Technology teachers. These schools/centres are called providers. At year 9 (average age of thirteen) children attend secondary school. In 1989 New Zealand educational reforms gave schools more decision- making authority. This enabled the schools to choose what programmes were appropriate for their children. In the past intermediate schools providing Technology Education were funded directly from the Ministry (Schollum 1996). In the special circumstances, funding was permitted to be given directly to individual schools for the delivery of Technology Education (Brown 1999; Pedersen 1997; Pole 1992).