Abstract:

The Technology subject is one of the subject that was introduce in the South African school curriculum during the democratic era. Technology is designed to teach citizens to be knowledgeable about technology evolution, systems, techniques, and uses, social and cultural significance. Its aim was to produce engineers, technicians and artisans needed in modern society and the necessity to develop a technologically literate population for the modern world. Technology influences learners’ daily lives and certainly plays a significant role in developing students’ positive and negative attitudes. To instill the right attitude and technological know-how of the subject, it requires various strategies to teaching and learning of theory and practicals. Poor performance of the students in Technology subject has been documented in literature. The challenges of learning the subject are perceived by the learners as difficult, problematic and demanding.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the learners’ perception of learning Technology subject in South African rural secondary schools. Participants were 32 students from nine rural schools in Mpumalanga Province of South Africa. The question posed in this study is: What are the learners’ perceptions of learning Technology? To answer this question, a qualitative case study was used. To collect data, observations and interviews were employed. Data were analysed through Atlas.ti. The findings revealed learners experienced difficulty in understanding most topics in Technology which led to poor performance. It was also revealed that there are several contributing factors, which included a lack of teaching and learning materials, no technology laboratory. The findings showed that Technology as a subject was liked by most learners in school because it allows them to think critically and be innovative. It is important that Technology is extended and offered up to Grade 12 since it covers tertiary subjects or course related to mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, pneumatic systems, hydraulic systems and mining as it contributes to the economic growth of the country.

Keywords:

Technology as a subject, MiniPAT (Mini Practical Assessment Task), students’ perception, students’ attitudes, rural areas, secondary school.