The planning of technology education for South African schools

One of the recommendations made in the discussion document,A Curriculum Model for Education in South Africa (CUMSA), which was released by the Department of National Education in 1991, is that technology education should be offered for the first nine years of pre-tertiary education as a compulsory subject and for the last three years as an optional subject. This paper aims to locate technology education in the context of the sociopolitical and economic background to education in South Africa and to assess to what extent it meets the emerging aims and needs of education. Further aims are to propose a rationale for the teaching of technology at school level in South Africa, to suggest possible broad aims for the teaching of technology, to outline the nature and character of technology education relevant to the South African situation and to propose a possible methodology for technology education in South Africa. The conclusion is reached that technology education can make an important contribution to South African education if the so-called technological process is the major emphasis as this can be transformative and promote quality education.Dr Piet Ankiewicz (M Sc, D Ed, HED) is a Senior Lecturer in Education at the Rand Afrikaans University. He is responsible for teacher education programmes in the field of Science, and for an M Ed course in technology education. His areas of research include education policy and curriculum development for technology education.     

The Immensity of Technology . . . and the Role of the Individual

Technology is a force that reshapes society, the dominant organizer which fundamentally changes everything. It provides material comforts and benefits but can change social patterns and values. Major innovations are happening simultaneously, stretching biological, mental and social adaptation to the limit. Technological decision making relies on an equal focus on three areas: resources (knowledge and information), expression (skills and practices) and responsibility (values and ethics). Decisions cannot be left to the ‘blackbox’ stage when functioning is effectively hidden from view and the technology has entered our culture. Similarly, participation in decision making cannot be left to a select few but must be the role of every citizen. Ensuring full participation in decisions should form the central role of technology education if it is finally to be recognized as a full member of the ‘general education club’. All students must be able to reflect, develop ethical standards and demonstrate how values are expressed through technology. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The Value of a Utilitarian Curriculum: The Case of Technological Education

The position taken in this paper is that narrow conceptions of human development and the purposes of schooling have tended to displace rather than situate subjects like technology in the curriculum. Arguments which support this position, however, are only possible when the paradigm through which schooling is operationalized, is inverted. Viewing classic school subjects as abstractions which perpetuate narrow conceptions of pedagogy is a contentious position to take. But taking it and understanding how a utilitarian curriculum spawns real human development and learning gives a whole new perspective to curriculum theory and practice.     

Complementary assets as pipes and prisms: Innovation incentives and trajectory choices

The issue of the failure of incumbent firms in the face of radical technical change has been a central question in the technology strategy domain for some time. We add to prior contributions by highlighting the role a firm's existing set of complementary assets have in influencing its investment in alternative technological trajectories. We develop an analytical model that considers firm heterogeneity with respect to both technological trajectories and complementary assets. Complementary assets play a dual role in incumbents' investment behavior toward radical technological change: they are not only resources (pipes) that can buffer firms from technology change, but also prisms through which firms view those changes, influencing both the magnitude of resources that should be invested and the trajectory to which these resources should be directed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effect of U.K. incentives on R&D activities in U.S.-owned electronics companies in Scotland

The British Government provides numerous financial assistance programmes to assist electronics companies in funding investment projects, R&D activities, and applications of new technology. Interviews were conducted at fifteen U.S. electronics subsidiaries in Scotland to determine the effect of these government incentives in promoting technology and innovation. Results indicate that capital investment grants were widely used, but that financial aid schemes to encourage R&D and the adoption of advanced technology have no bearing on technical characteristics and decisions at the affiliates.     

Breakthrough innovations in the U.S. biotechnology industry: the effects of technological space and geographic origin

How are breakthrough innovations created? Our study suggests that the type of external knowledge sourced determines the likelihood of creation of breakthrough innovation. We characterize the external knowledge utilized on two dimensions: its technological space and geographic origin. We draw on the concepts of local search and national innovation systems to identify critical knowledge inputs. We hypothesize that external knowledge characterized by technological distance or proximity and the national or international context can have a differential impact on breakthrough innovation. This is due to the contradictory implications of its value created by distance and to absorptive capacity limitations in effectively utilizing knowledge from a different context. To test our hypotheses we use patent data from the U.S. biotechnology industry. Our findings suggest that technologically distant knowledge of national origin has a curvilinear effect and technologically proximate knowledge of international origin has a positive effect on breakthrough innovation. However, simultaneous exploration along technologically and geographic dimensions is not useful to generating breakthrough innovation; technologically distant knowledge of international origin does not have a significant impact. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

New Zealand Teachers' Experiences in Implementing the Technology Curriculum

This paper describes the results of a national study to investigate teachers' experiences in the implementation of the technology curriculum in New Zealand schools from years 1–13. This investigation of the implementation of the technology curriculum is part of a larger study being undertaken nationally in all curriculum areas (National Schools Sampling Study) to explore how effective the curriculum is in practice and how the results can inform future developments. National focus groups, questionnaires and case studies are used to explore how the curriculum is being implemented. The questionnaires were distributed to over 10% of New Zealand schools. The key findings indicate that most primary school teachers are aiming for curriculum coverage, have moderate levels of confidence but are concerned about curriculum overcrowding. Years 7 and 8 teachers are mainly concerned about assessment, whereas secondary school teachers are constrained by existing structures in schools. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Determinants of technology cycle time in the U.S. pharmaceutical industry'

The focus of this study is to examine different factors that influence a firm's technology cycle time. The U.S. pharmaceutical industry is analyzed from 1977–1991. Specifically, the sample includes 21 firms that (a) primarily produce brand ethical drugs, (b) are publicly-owned companies, and (c) have pharmaceutical sales account for a substantial portion of company sales.
Our measure of faster technology cycle time is positively correlated to measures of the knowledge base level of firms, the breadth of firms' knowledge bases, size, and age; it is negatively correlated to advertising expenditures and the percent of US. firm sales to total sales. However, the most notable finding is that technology cycle time is significantly faster for firms that predominantly generate new knowledge internally, and slower for firms that rely more on external sources of new knowledge.     

U.S. national security export controls: Implications for global competitiveness of U.S. high-tech firms

U.S. exporters of high-technology, ‘dual-use’ products are competitively disadvantaged in global markets by the complexity, range, and stringency of U.S. national security export controls. This paper demonstrates that fungibility of high technology and lax interpretation of multilateral export control agreements by other advanced countries have made the existing control regime ineffective. It further shows that persistent U.S. restrictiveness of exports in non-critical, widely available goods and technologies may needlessly and permanently erode U.S. firms' competitive position in existing as well as rapidly-opening markets worldwide. The need to revise the notion of national security to include not only military security, but also its complement, economic security, is discussed. The pivotal issue of enforceability of multilateral controls is explored, and corporate strategies for U.S. high-tech firms to achieve export control policy change are suggested.     

Improving Technology Education Research on Cognition

In the United States cognitive research about technology education for the general educational purpose of technological literacy has suffered from a lack of a coherent focus. Certainly, there are studies that have addressed cognition, yet analysts of technology education research have been unable to coordinate their findings in any meaningful way (Streichler 1966; Dyrenfurth & Householder 1979; McCrory 1987; Zuga 1994). There are several persistent problems facing technology educators that contribute to the inability to develop clear interpretations or generalizations of the relationship of cognition and technology education. If some of those problems are identified, then, perhaps, we can address them in order to devise directions and strategies for studying cognition in technology education.     

Policy-Induced Technology Adoption: Evidence from the U.S. Lead Phasedown

Theory suggests that economic instruments, such as pollution taxes or tradable permits, can provide more efficient technology adoption incentives than conventional regulatory standards. We explore this issue for an important industry undergoing dramatic decreases in allowed pollution – the U.S. petroleum industry's phasedown of lead in gasoline. Using a duration model applied to a panel of refineries from 1971–1995, we find that the pattern of technology adoption is consistent with an economic response to market incentives, plant characteristics, and alternative policies. Importantly, evidence suggests that the tradable permit system used during the phasedown provided incentives for more efficient technology adoption decisions.     

技术水平与技术利润贡献的实证研究

技术的发展是一个从稀缺到一般的过程,在这个过程中技术对利润的贡献是递减的。这样就产生了两个问题:不同生产性质的行业处于不同的技术发展阶段,其生产者对技术投资有不同的偏好;在同一生产性质的行业内部,不同技术水平的生产者对技术投资也有不同的偏好。反之,如果技术投资偏好是可以测量的,那么就可以根据不同行业的技术投资数据来实证该行业的技术发展阶段及其技术水平。本文对这两个偏好建立模型,并根据我国1996—2006年间18个代表行业的技术投资数据进行经验研究,分析这些行业的技术投资偏好和其所处的技术水平阶段,为我们制定产业政策提供理论依据。     

U.S. industrial intracorporate entrepreneurship practices

This article reports the intracorporate entrepreneurial program (ICEP) practices, or‘venture management’ activities, of 210 American industrial firms. The survey reveals a growing concern among US. industrial enterprises about increasing competition and outlines a viable action-oriented response to these competitive pressures. Motives for creating long-term resource commitments to the creation of new product ventures and new technology divisions in existing companies are explored. A preliminary assessment is made of the effect of such programs on the human resources and performance measures of the organization. A cautious optimism for the successful continued growth of such programs is argued.     

The Development of a National Curriculum in Technology for New Zealand

New Zealand under went major curriculum reforms in the early 1990's. These reforms were determined by the New Zealand Curriculum Framework which provides an overarching framework for the development of curricula in New Zealand and which defines seven broad essential learning areas rather than subject areas. Technology is important and should be part of the education of all students. Six grounds for developing technology education were given, namely: economic, pedagogic, motivational, cultural, environmental, and personal. This paper reports on the development of a technology curriculum in schools. The philosophy of the curriculum will be discussed, particularly crucial aspects such as inclusiveness. The way in which the technology curriculum has attempted to meet the needs of a New Zealand technological society will be examined. The general aims of technology education in Technology in the New Zealand Curriculum are to develop: technological knowledge and understanding; an understanding and awareness of the interrelationship between technology and society; technological capability. The development of seven technological areas for all students will be highlighted. This paper will discuss in detail the development of the national technology education policy and the way in which the curriculum was developed. The last section of the paper will consider issues related to teacher development programmes and areas of future research.     

The Determinants of Technology Adoption in Italian Manufacturing Industries

The adoption of new technologies in Italian manufacturing industries is analysed using data for 13,334 firms selected from the 1990–92 Community Innovation Survey. The determinants of technology adoption are analysed in an econometric framework (logit model) which is a general test of different theoretical explanations of technological diffusion. We particularly refer to the rank, epidemic and information effects which significantly affect the use of new technology in Italian manufacturing industries. We use a set of explanatory variables which enables us to set up a well specified empirical model and to use odds ratios to determine the effect of their changes on the adoption probability, thus giving a more precise picture of the determinants of technology adoption.     

The Politics of Technological Literacy

Technological literacy has been given official sanction; it is the end of technology education in the United States. For most technology educators, the construct is neutral, and something nobody could be ‘against’. This article situates technological literacy in its ideological context of competitive supremacy and conservative politics. In opposition to a ‘neutral’ notion of this construct, a turn toward critical technological literacy is negotiated. Critical technological literacy represents an overtly political turn toward overcoming forms of power that sustain inequities in the built world. To engage in these politics, it is argued that technology educators will necessarily have to resituate their practice within cultural studies. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Cross-Pacific internationalization of R&D by U.S. and Japanese firms

Efforts by MNCs to develop coordinated international R&D networks have taken place from different historical bases of internationalization and in the context of differing trends in the role of R&D within the corporation, as the cross-Pacific R&D investment in leading U.S. and Japanese firms in the electronics industry shows. Japanese firms, although they espouse a strategy of 'localization', are establishing wholly-owned R&D centres in the U.S. with highly specialized technology mandates that to be used by the company must be networked with their parent organizations. U.S. firms rely on joint ventures or wholly-owned labs with a wider array of technologies that face strong pulls to a local orientation. The patterns are somewhat out of line with the models of internationalization each side is espousing.     

Multidisciplinary Technology Education

Contrary to a tale that is being told in the US, there is no transhistorical, universally pristine organisation of technology. This article resituates technology education in the contested, historico-political terrain to which it belongs. The current, and only, model of the technology discipline is interrogated in order to interrupt a project with roots bound up with a doctrinaire, academic conservatism popularised during the early 1960s. Following a lively critique of the technology mono-discipline, comparative curriculum is used for path-finding and interpretation. Counter to the mono-discipline model of technology, the conceptual parameters of a critical and plural multidiscipline are outlined. ‘Multidisciplinary Technology Education’ (MTE), inspired through efforts in art education, is proposed as a middle path between the technology mono-discipline and Design and Technology. MTE is balanced over four interdisciplines – Practice, Design, Studies and Criticism – with an end in technological sensibility and political sagacity. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Insights into the intrinsic and extrinsic challenges for implementing technology education: case studies of Queensland teachers

This study, embedded within the Researching School Change in Technology Education (RSCTE) project in Queensland, Australia, aimed to gain insights into the intrinsic and extrinsic challenges experienced by teachers during the implementation of technology education within primary school settings. The official publication and launch of the Technology years 1–10 syllabus and associated curriculum materials by the Queensland Studies Authority during 2003 saw the first formal Technology curriculum for primary schools in Queensland. The Queensland Government announced that all Queensland schools were to aim for full implementation of this new Key Learning Area (KLA) by 2007. This presented a challenge for Queensland teachers as they began to understand this new KLA and subsequently, were required to implement technology education for the first time. Education Queensland released a number of different strategies that were designed to assist this implementation, including research partnerships with universities. Thus, the RSCTE project, a partnership project between Education Queensland and Griffith University included implementation research within schools. Through the identification of insights into intrinsic and extrinsic challenges, this study, while recognising the limitations of transferability beyond the case studies presented, provides suggestions to assist the implementation of technology education.