Self-efficacy or context dependency?: Exploring teachers’ perceptions of and attitudes towards technology education

Abstract

Educational research on attitudes shows that both teaching and student learning are affected by the attitudes of the teacher. The aim of this study is to examine technology teachers’ perceptions of and attitudes towards teaching technology in Swedish compulsory schools, focusing on teachers’ perceived control. The following research question is posed: How do the teachers perceive self-efficacy and context dependency in teaching technology? Qualitative interviews were performed with 10 technology teachers in the compulsory school (ages 7–16), and the data was analysed using thematic analysis. Based on an attitude framework, three sub-themes of self-efficacy were found: experience, education and interest, subject knowledge, and preparation. Furthermore, four sub-themes of context dependency were found; collegial support, syllabus, resources and status. The results show that, according to the teachers in this study, self-efficacy mainly comes from experience, education and interest. Moreover, contextual factors can both limit and boost the teachers, but overall there are negative attitudes because of a lack of support and resources, which impedes the teaching. Teachers educated in technology education generally express more positive attitudes and thus seem to have advantages in relation to technology teaching, but still they sometimes express negative attitudes in the field of perceived control. Some implications of this study are that it is necessary to promote teacher education in technology and to reserve resources for technology education in schools, thereby supporting teachers in controlling contextual and internal factors that affect their teaching. This support to teachers is especially important if there is an intention for the subject to develop in new directions.