Curriculum development for technology education: a perspective from Colombia

A new law of education, passed in 1994 (Law No 115/'94), established 'technology and informatics' as one of the nine compulsory curricular subjects for basic and secondary education in Colombia. In this way, the country started a systematic effort in favour of scientific and technological literacy for all her citizens, recognising that education is an essential (though not sufficient) factor for socio-economic development. The need for curricular proposals for the new subject became evident. The present paper describes the curricular structure developed jointly by the Master's Program in Pedagogy of Technology of the National Pedagogical University, and DifuCiencia, a NGO working in science and technological literacy programs. This is the preliminary result of a joint research and development project between these two entities, sponsored by Bogota's Secretary of Education and which has included on-the-job-training of almost 600 public school teachers in Colombia's capital