Industrial Arts Revisited: An Examination of the Subject's Continued Strength, Relevance and Value

There has been a considerable amount of work, position papers and professional pressure in recent years expressing the need for technology education. This effort has often rallied around justifications which diminished or ignored the contributions and continued existence of industrial arts programs. Considering the recent trends and mandates toward technology education, have those educators previously initiated into industrial arts been indoctrinated to teach subjects such as woodworking, only to find the subject matter has no contemporary relevance and can no longer exist? In essence, are the curriculum, activities and equipment of industrial arts temporal in nature and of minimal educational value, or was it simply politically incorrect to discuss or support the subject? This paper will attempt to clarify some of the arguments for and against industrial arts, as presented by proponents of technology education. In the scope of this discussion, an alternative view of the strength, relevance, and value of traditional industrial arts is presented. Concurrently, assumptions about technology education as being the only program in this arena of instructional worth are challenged. Concluding remarks will suggest a need for middle ground encompassing professional inclusion and program appropriateness. As a former industrial arts woodworking teacher in the late 1970s to mid1980s, and now in a university setting preparing teachers, I have been wrestling with the changes that have been occurring. I have witnessed both public school and teacher preparation programs in industrial arts/technology education drastically fall in numbers (Volk, 1993), and programs that were full of tradition being attacked. This author is not against the tenets of technology education, for who would argue against the need for students to understand technology? Rather, as a former industrial arts practitioner, I am convinced there were, and still are, aspects of industrial arts having educational value for today's youth. ________________________________ Kenneth Volk is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Engineering and Technology Studies at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong.