Females in Technology Education: The results of an ethno-graphic social-constructionist study in secondary schools

Abstract

This paper will present some of the results of a study undertaken in selected senior secondary schools in Queensland, Australia. The study examined the factors that encouraged and facilitated female student’s participation and engagement in design and technology learning activities in technology education classrooms. Research on boys and masculinity has indicated that the social norms which have persisted over decades have not changed in relation to feminist views of teachers nor have the pushes for transformative approaches to gender in schools made a difference to practice (Keddie & Mills, 2007). The questions asked what factors have influenced female student’s choices to take the subject? This explored effective classrooms, good practice, technology, gender and language and examined the socio-cultural approaches to learning that enable females to engage in technology education, as part of the STEM movement, in the 21st century. The second question examined how teaching and learning was conducted and approached in the technology classrooms which were examined. The final question asked what values were addressed in the teaching and learning in specific contexts of technology education for classes (Pavlova, 2009). The study adopted an ethnographic social-constructionist stance which suggests that we acquire knowledge via the environment and gender relations that are socially constructed. The research used a qualitative case study methodology guided by a sociocultural framework. One of the recommendations was the need to build pedagogical ecologies for technology education based on an awareness of learning styles and values that are unique to females’ ways of learning. Student backgrounds in terms of socio-economic experiences influence what female students choose to study within school settings. Life experiences and vocational aspirations of students contribute to student’s study plans and their engagement in the learning area as they shape the 21st Century skills.