Examining the Demographics and Preparation Experiences of Foundations of Technology Teachers

When the Standards for Technological Literacy were released in 2000, Technology and Engineering (T&E) educators were expected to integrate concepts from other content areas within the context of engineering design and problem solving (ITEA/TTEEA, 2000/2002/2007). Fourteen years later, the Next Generation Science Standards called for science educators to teach engineering content and practices within their cunicula (NGSS Lead States, 2014). These integrative standards have increased the demands placed on pie- and in-service teacher preparation efforts to ensure science and T&E educators are properly prepared to teach cross-disciplinary concepts. However, requisite for suggesting changes to adequately prepare educators for teaching such concepts, the demographics and preparation expenences of those teaching within these content areas must be thoroughly examined. This is especially important m T&E education, where there arc fewer highly qualified T&E educators than openings m the United States (Move, 2009). Given this shortage it begs to question, “What are the demographic and preparation expenences of those tasked with teaching T&E courses?”

This study examined the demographic and background charactensncs of 55 individuals who were teaching Foundations of Technology (FoT). the International Technology and Engineering Educators Association’s (1TEHA) flagship course. Furthermore, this research investigated the types and amount of formal and informal preparation expenences that participating FoT teachers completed within science and T&E education. The findings revealed substantial variations among the preparation expenences of those participants in this study. From these findings, recommendations to better prepare FoT teachers for integr ating science concepts were suggested.