Abstract:

The purpose of this study is to share light on the educational experiences gained by engaging technology education teachers through action research. The paper further verifies the cyclical and spiral activities of action research that contributed to teachers’ creativity in utilizing available local resources for making learners’ projects. The school subject technology education (called Design and Technology in some countries) is a vehicle for inculcating creativity, problem solving and innovation because of its hands-on nature in classroom practices. This action research study engaged a sample of five schools from Limpopo Province of South Africa. The study was designed from both critical theory perspective and participatory paradigm. Data was organized in a way that made it useful to identify trends and themes. Data was collected from senior phase technology teachers of Mankweng Circuit through non-participant observations, audiovisual tapes of lesson presentations and technology classrooms, interviews, photographs, questionnaires, logs of focus group meetings, and field notes. It was after few cycles of partnering with the technology teachers as co-researchers, they were able to engage their learners in the design process and involve their learners in projects construction for the very first time. The paper concludes by offering samples of projects designed by learners through the guidance of their teachers. Emancipation of technology education teachers through action research is eminent since teachers no more lament of being under resourced but inspired to creatively utilize locally available resources for learners’ projects.

Keywords:

Cyclical and spiral activities, critical theory, participatory paradigm.