A Turn to Engineering: The Continuing Struggle of Technology Education for Legitimization as a School Subject

Where would the current preoccupation with engineering lead? And is this new preoccupation a bright prospect for the field? Charles Bennett, founder of the Mississippi Valley Conference, cautioned once that “...we should not be turned aside by each new thing that appears. It is to be expected that there will be some chaff to be blown from each year’s crop of grain” (Bennett, 1914, p.15). As we consider the notion of pre-engineering this is a caution that is appropriate now. It is the view of this author that pre-engineering is an instructive movement for technology education, with long lasting possibilities, where it emanates from a regular, as opposed to a movement conception.