Perceptions of technology education:: a cross-case study of teachers realising technology as a new subject of teaching

Education has become internationalised. Educational trends, concerns and debates exceed national and cultural borders, and ideas and innovations are being exchanged and transferred. Many curriculum programmes and reforms in education are influenced by international trends and by curricular ideas developed in a different educational context than the one in which they are put into practice. How does this affect the process of realisation and their effects in schools? Technology as a subject in compulsory education is one field where perspectives, concerns and ideas to a large extent are exchanged and transferred on the international arena. The importance of technology as a component of education for all is increasingly recognised, and the concept of technological literacy has emerged (Lewis & Gagel 1992, Liddament 1994, Barnett 1995, Ferreyra 1997, Jenkins 1997a, Jenkins 1997b, Petrina 2000). Though drawing on a variety of different traditions, technology as a specific and independent subject is a newcomer in the school curriculum in many countries. A range of curriculum initiatives is thus made in order to establish and develop technology as a subject of teaching.dr.scient.dr.scient