Critical Issues and Problems in Technology Education.

"This is our decade, we will either develop as a strong and viable instructional program or we will wither and die as an insignificant relic of a failed curriculum" (Custer, 2003). These prophetic words by the 2002-2004 president of the Council on Technology Teacher Education (CTTE) seem to be ringing more true with the passing of each school year. In these critical times it is imperative that we utilize every available resource to build and establish our field of study and to address and solve the issues and problems that we now face. Therefore, if we are to guide our profession successfully through the myriad of problems and concerns that impact us, we will need to be strategic in every decision. A crucial first step to preserve the future of the profession is to gather empirical data that accurately identifies the critical issues and problems facing technology education. Research Goals To address the need of identifying a comprehensive base for the critical issues and problems, research was conducted to ascertain the perspectives of classroom teachers, university professors, and supervisors of technology education. The goal of the research was to determine the critical issues and problems based on the following two (2) questions: * What are the critical issues that are currently impacting the technology education field of study? * What are the critical problems that are currently impacting the technology education field of study? In order to obtain standardized information from the most knowledgeable subjects integral to this topic, survey-based research methodologies were deemed appropriate to collect data. A combination of random sampling and total population data collection strategies were employed. Stratified random sampling was used to collect data from classroom teachers of technology education. A total of 347 middle school and high school teachers were randomly selected from the four regions of the International Technology Education Association (ITEA) to participate in this study. In addition, the entire population of 132 university department heads/program leaders in technology teacher education, as well as the total population of 55 state and regional supervisors, were selected to receive the survey questionnaire. These individuals represented an appropriate cross-sectional perspective of the current needs and difficulties facing the field of technology education. Survey Construction The survey was divided into four (4) sections. Section 1--Demographics--sought to collect data on the appropriate demographic categories, including instructional position, (e.g., middle school teacher, high school teacher, etc.), years of experience, gender, and age. Section 2--Directions--explained the procedures for completing the survey and defined the terms used in the survey (e.g., Critical--high degree of importance for the field; Issue--a concern that may affect progress or development for the field; Problem--an obstacle that is preventing progress or development for the field). Section 3--Critical Issues--sought the rating and ranking on 18 pre-identified critical issue items. Section 4--Critical Problems--sought rating and ranking on 21 pre-identified critical problem items. Participants were asked to rate their level of agreement or disagreement on each item by using a likert-type scale, indicating Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, and Strongly Disagree. In addition, each participant was asked to independently rank order the top three (3) critical issues and problems that they deemed the most vital to the field of technology education. Results Of the 534 survey questionnaires that were mailed, 301 were completed in some fashion and returned. Five (5) surveys were incompletely or inaccurately filled out and were deemed unusable, therefore, 296 surveys, or 55%, were analyzed for evaluation. Table 1 presents the results of the demographic data collected in this study. …