Background ...
Jean Wallace started teaching at Mount Maunganui College in 1995. After a Diploma in Home Science in textiles and clothing design from the University of Otago, Jean had moved straight into teacher training at Auckland Training College, graduating in 1987. She taught Home Economics in two Auckland secondary schools before travelling overseas for three years, teaching food and technology courses in two London schools. Her return to New Zealand in 1995 coincided with the release of the new Technology curriculum. On her appointment at Mount Maunganui, Jean found herself teaching Textiles, Food and Science courses across the curriculum. The teacher she replaced had put in place a Year 11 Design Technology – Textiles programme, and Jean had to quickly come to terms with "a course that didn't even exist when I left New Zealand". After teaching and assessing textiles within the Design Technology programme for a couple of years Jean turned her attention to the new Technology curriculum.
"Having taken what, for me, was a big step into Design Technology, the move to NCEA Technology didn't seem such a threatening one. I'd been introduced to the 'technology' approach in UK so what the new curriculum was asking wasn't entirely new to me."
As NCEA assessment became established at all three levels in the school, it became clear to Jean that Technology courses were widely perceived as being 'less academic' than other courses and that the number of students taking the courses at the senior levels was being influenced by the lack of an established coherent 'Technology' pathway from Year 9 through to Year 13. Jean applied to become part of the Beacon Practice project with the goal of successfully addressing this issue.
