Gender Equity Issues in Technology Education: A Qualitative Approach to Uncovering the Barriers

This study was conducted in order to discover existing barriers that discourage females from enrolling in technology education (TED) classes in high school and college and to offer suggestions on ways to overcome those barriers. A pilot study was conducted in 2005 at an International Technology Educator’s Association (ITEA) National Conference to help inform the researcher on the best way to collect data for the study. Participants for the pilot study included female technology education students from several major universities around the country. As a result of the pilot study, qualitative research methods were utilized including a survey for demographics, focus groups, small group interviews, and document analysis. The subjects for the current study were male and female students attending a major university who were enrolled in technology education courses as well as a group of females who were not technology education majors. Three groups were interviewed for the study: one group was comprised of females majoring in technology education, a second group was made up of females enrolled in an introductory graphic communications class who were not technology education majors, and the final group was a group of male technology education majors. Analysis of the data explored possible explanations for and solutions to low female enrollment in technology education and technology-related fields which could influence the way technology education and STEM classes are taught in the future.

Author dc:creator

• Lee, Jennifer Anne

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Dr. Catherine Warren, Committee Member
• Dr. Alice Scales, Committee Member
• Dr. Theodore Branoff, Committee Chair
• Dr. William J. Haynie, Committee Member

• gender
• equity
• technology education
• qualitative

Statement dc:rights

• I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dis sertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to NC State University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report.

Dc Identifier Other

etd-05062008-105006

OAI record oai:identifier

https://repository.lib.ncsu.edu/server/oai/request?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=dim&identifier=oai%3Arepository.lib.ncsu.edu%3A1840.16%2F5349