Talking technology into the future

Abstract

From its very inception in the 1980s Professor Marc de Vries has been a strong advocate for and supportive of the Technology Education in the New Zealand curriculum, its philosophical underpinning and pedagogical approaches. This support has always been very much appreciated by the technology education community in New Zealand. In addition Marc’s support has given the curriculum ‘mana’ [prestige] both within New Zealand and internationally. Like many countries around the world New Zealand has had its challenges in implementing and maintaining technology as part of the taught curriculum. There has been and is currently a reluctance to see and understand that serious and rigourous curriculum can be both academic and practical in nature. This duality is both a strength and a threat to technology. This chapter presents the authors’s SWOT [Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats] analysis of technology in New Zealand, taking into consideration the past while walking with head held high into the future drawing on her experiences as a teacher, teacher educator, researcher and curriculum developer in technology education from 1996 to the current day