"Industrial Arts Education is a four-year teacher preparation curriculum leading to the bachelor of science degree. It prepares students to teach Industrial Arts subjects in the elementary schools and junior and senior high schools of the state. It is a new curriculum at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, being offered for the first time during the session 1946-47, in cooperation with the State Department of Education, Division of Trade and Industrial Education. Previously, prospective instructors of industrial arts had to secure the requisite training from institutions located in other states. Now, students may prepare for this important phase of education in our own state".
|
In 1946, Joseph A. Schad became the first department chair. A second faculty member was added one year later with the arrival of Russell G. Louis. In September 1948, Walter L. Griggs became the third faculty member in industrial arts education at Virginia Tech. In the 1950s, the department established a reputation for its quality undergraduate program. During the first two decades, the program continued to provide leadership in industrial arts in the Commonwealth of Virginia, the southeastern region, and the nation.
For the first twenty-four years, the Industrial Arts Department only had one facility: a combination laboratory and office suite which was located in 107 Seitz Hall. The summer of 1971 saw the addition of a communications lab and office in 300 Seitz Hall. This addition provided much needed space which resulted in a long awaited expansion of offerings in the communication area as well as freeing up space in the existing production lab. Both laboratories were renovated and expanded in 1984 along with a new faculty office complex in Smyth Hall.
With the announced retirement of Joseph A. Schad in the summer of 1972, Dr. William E. Dugger, Jr., was selected as the new Program Area Leader of Industrial Arts Education. Dugger assumed his new duties in September 1972, with Schad retiring in October of that year. Under this new leadership, there began the current period of expansion and development of industrial arts education at Virginia Tech as the newly formed College of Education grew. In July 1973, Dr. David Sawyer, a 1967 graduate of the Virginia Tech program, joined the faculty in the first new position since the initial formation of the program. However, during the summer of 1974, Sawyer returned to Alabama to assume a position in the State Department of Education.
In 1974, Dr. Allen Bame replaced Dr. Sawyer, and in 1978, Dr. Charles Pinder became the fifth member of the faculty. In 1980, Professor Griggs retired and Dr. Mark Sanders was appointed as his successor in the graphic communications area. In 1982, Dr. James LaPorte was employed to fill the production position upon the retirement of Professor Russell Louis.
In 1987, the name of the program was changed from Industrial Arts to Technology Education in keeping with national trends toward a technology curriculum base. In 1994, Charles Pinder left to become the chair of the Department of Technology at Northern Kentucky University and William Dugger went on leave to act as Director of the Technology for All Americans Project (TAA). Funded by the NSF and NASA, the TAA Project was charged with identifying the intellectual domain of technology education and developing national curriculum standards for technology education programs. Dr. Thomas Jeffrey and Dr. Vincent Childress assumed Pinder's and Dugger's responsibilities as visiting assistant professors. Dugger retired from Virginia Tech in 1996 and Dr. Sharon Brusic joined the faculty to teach in the electronics area and elementary technology education. Dr. Childress assumed a faculty position at North Carolina A&T and in 1998 Dr. Jeffrey went to Ohio Northern University.
The Technology Education program earned widespread recognition in the 1990's. It became one of the first in the nation to become NCATE accredited in 1991-92, under the new ITEA/CTTE guidelines. In 1998 the program faculty established a new research journal for the profession - the Journal of Technology Education. A 1992 study conducted at Utah State University ranked Virginia Tech's Technology Education doctoral program first in the nation. In 1998 the undergraduate program was one of the first four programs in the United States designated as "Outstanding" by the Council on Technology Teacher Education. In 1995 the Technology Education Program became part of the Department of Teaching and Learning, and began offering its graduate degrees under the "Curriculum and Instruction" authorization. In 1996, the College of Education and the College of Human Resources were merged to form the College of Human Resources and Education.
Historically, the university promoted a "tripartite mission" of teaching, research, and service. At the turn of the century, the university's new Strategic Plan called for an increased emphasis in research with a goal of moving from the 50th ranked research institute in the US to the 30th ranked research university. In the spring of 2002 the university announced the phasing out of all undergraduate teacher education programs.
At about the same time, Virginia - experiencing fiscal problems resulting from an economic recession - substantially reduced funding support for Virginia Tech. Despite the widespread recognition for excellence that the program enjoyed, the faculty dwindled from five to one (Sanders) with the retirements of Drs. Dugger, Bame, and LaPorte in the late 1990s/early 2000s and with Brusic's move to join Millersville University's Technology Education Program. In 2005 the program rebounded with the hiring of Dr. John Wells as an Associate Professor. Wells had earned a PhD in Technology Education at Virginia Tech in 1992 and had been on the Technology Education faculty at West Virginia University from 1992-2005.
Since the inception of the program in 1946, the Technology Education faculty have worked closely with the Virginia Department of Education and many school systems in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The program has been a major contributor to the progress of Technology Education in Virginia, as well as nationally and internationally. In May 2005, the program graduated the last of roughly 900 total undergraduate majors, making the transition to an all graduate degree program. Since 1971, when the graduate program was established with the formation of the College of Education, the program has awarded more than 130 masters degrees and more than 50 doctoral degrees.
Research Initiatives
Research conducted by the faculty in the Technology Education Program has been exemplary. Numerous projects totaling more than $3,000,000 have been successfully completed. Funded research projects have included the Standards for Industrial Arts Programs Project 
(United States Department of Education); the Graphic Arts Education Videodisc Project and the Graphic Comm Central Projects (Graphic Arts Education and Research Foundation); Mission 21 Project (NASA and Delmar Publishers); Make the Connection Project (Virginia Space Grant Consortium"; Pupils' Attitudes Toward Technology Project; Technology, Science, Mathematics Integration Project (National Science Foundation); Bridges for Engineering/Education Project (National Science Foundation); and the Technology Education Status Study and the Technology Education Teaching & Learning Projects (Technical Foundation of America).
The Technology Education Program at Virginia Tech continues to strive for excellence and quality. The faculty and alumni are widely recognized for their outstanding teaching, research, scholarship, and service. Their singular mission, guided by a vision for the future, is technological literacy for all.
New Directions: "STEM Education"
In January 2006, the Technology Education Program began to offer its new "STEM Education" (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics) degree options at each of the graduate degree levels (MAed, EdS, EdD, & PhD). These new degrees options prepare the next generation of Technology Education and STEM Education leaders and scholars. The focus is on interdisciplinary research, teaching, and leadership that will undoubtedly be a hallmark of STEM education in the 21st century. The findings of cognitive science, the national curriculum and accreditation standards, and our increasingly "flat world" make it clear that tomorrow's STEM education leaders must better understand these interdisciplinary connections. This option includes courses in STEM Education Foundations, Pedagogy, Research, and Trends and Issues, and Internships/Externships.
Top
