International Journal of Technology and Design Education 10, 163–179, 2000.

 2000 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

Technology Education and Developing Countries

THEODORE LEWIS

Department of Work Community and Family Education, College of Education and Human
Development, University of Minnesota, 1954 Buford Ave, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA

ABSTRACT: This article considers the problem of introducing technology education as a

school subject in development countries. Should the subject draw inspiration from everyday
circumstances in these countries, or should it leapfrog to the space age? Answers depend upon
circumstance. Alternative scenarios for how technology can be introduced in these settings
are set forth. They include technology as reconstituted industrial arts, and technology across
the curriculum.

Keywords: development, developing country, industrial arts, progress, technology, technology

education

BACKGROUND

Many countries are striving to establish technology in their school cur-

ricula as a subject in its own right (see Layton, 1994; Lewis, 1991). In
England and Wales, a subject called design and technology has been made
compulsory in the National Curriculum (Department for Education, 1995;
Layton, 1995; Medway, 1992). In the United States the International
Technology Education Association has published a consensus document
titled ‘Technology for All Americans’, essentially a curricular manifesto for
the teaching of the subject in American schools, and is in the process of
establishing national curriculum standards (see International Technology
Education Association, 1996).
Societal technology, or technology in its more public meaning, is an
important hallmark of achievement and progress, and often what the advo-
cates of school technology seem to suggest is that the subject must draw
inspiration therefrom. Therefore, school technology must be contempo-
rary and relevant. Accordingly, there has been within recent times a strong
push for the subject to shed its craft origins in favour of content that
represents the space age. In the United States, for example, the over-
whelming preoccupation of curriculum theorizing in this field has been
toward a push away from craft towards modernity – that is, from indus-
trial arts to technology (see Lewis, 1995a).
The push to technology as a curricular item has not escaped third world
countries, where there is much interest. But these countries tend to lag
technologically. Often, modernity is confined to urban areas, leaving the
hinterland impoverished and reliant upon indigenous techniques. While
indigenous techniques and artifacts cannot be dismissed, children in such
countries do not come face to face with technological commonplaces on
164 THEODORE LEWIS

a day to day basis, as do children in the developed world. For developing

countries, therefore, the challenge is how to conceive of the subject. Should
it leapfrog into the space age, or should it be tuned to the rhythm of existing
everyday circumstances? Should the subject be guided by urban moder-
nity or rural indigenousness? Stage of development clearly cannot be
discounted as one considers the pragmatics of installing and conducting
the curriculum in third world settings. It is one thing to leapfrog into
modernity, it is another to sustain viable programs.
And yet, technology as a school subject would seem to be an ideal way
to popularize societal technology in the third world, and to dispose popu-
laces towards its acceptance, and even its creation. Writing under the
auspices of UNESCO, Faure et al. (1972) asserted that ‘An understanding
of technology is vital in the modern world, and must be part of everyone’s
basic education. Lack of understanding of technological methods makes one
more and more dependent on others in daily life . . .’ (p. 66). These authors
were of the view that a rudimentary understanding of technology enabled
people to select, evaluate and make better use of technological products.
Technology education, in their view, had to become an integral aspect of
general education the world over. One may argue that the need for such a
subject is probably more compelling in the third world, than it is in the more
developed world.
This article addresses the particular challenge of conceiving of the subject
from the perspective of the third world, and the perils for third world
advocates as they seek to imagine it in a way that has local meaning for
them. In what follows I reflect first upon the relationship between tech-
nological progress and development. Next I examine the basic claims made
by advocates of the subject in the developed world, as well as upon the
primary approaches to the curriculum to which they resort. This becomes
the backdrop against which I discuss the emergent literature on technology
education in the underdeveloped world. Curricular options available to
developing countries are then proposed and discussed, following which
the article concludes.

TECHNOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT

In the literature on links between investment in education and economic

growth, technology is almost always overlooked as a curriculum item. More
likely, developing countries would focus upon science, ignoring its prac-
tical dimension – the world of practical ideas, tools, machines, materials
and processes. Or, where the focus is upon practical education, the aim might
be narrowly skills-oriented, and geared exclusively to employment. But
in these countries, shortcomings in technological knowhow stall develop-
ment efforts. Often, they must rely upon expatriates for technical expertise
that could easily become available locally if only the disposition to tech-
nology were more liberal. While the politics of underdevelopment cannot
 TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES 165

be discounted, and while there is no magic technological wand that can

guarantee the eradication of poverty, countries that wish to emerge from
an under-developed state must come to see technology not as something
external to them, needing to be imported. They must rather view technology
as an internally propelled process first. Technology must be seen as the
process of adding value to resources at hand through ingenuity and inven-
tiveness. The school curriculum is a good place to begin, if poor countries
are to create the institutional and social structures needed to reduce their
dependence on imported technology. Children in these countries need to
find space in the curriculum whereby to channel their inventive impulses.
In his Nobel lecture in 1971, Simon Kuznets suggested that the char-
acteristics of economic growth of contemporary developed countries
included high rates of growth of per capita output and population, high rates
of productivity, high rates of structural transformation of the economy,
sociological shifts such as secularization and urbanization, global reach
made possible by transportation and communication technologies, and the
limited spread of this economic growth to just one-third of the world’s
population (Kuznets, 1973). Dwelling specifically on the less developed
countries, Kuznets argued that the conditions in them differ from those
that prevailed in now developed countries on the eve of their becoming
modern. For example, there are now greater population densities in many
of today’s underdeveloped countries. Thus, the labour saving technologies
of the developed countries might not be directly suited to them. Neither
might the social technologies evolved in developed countries provide good
institutional models for less developed countries, where population size and
diversity might warrant new arrangements. He asserted:
It will not be a matter of merely borrowing existing tools, material and social; or of directly
applying past patterns of growth, merely allowing for difference in parameters.
The innovational requirements are likely to be particularly great in the social and polit-
ical structures (Kuznets, p. 256).

Kuznets was suggesting here that context and particular local needs were
shapers of technology. Technology had to be geared to circumstance. Less
developed countries had to create their own particular conditions within
which demand favourable to the creation of technology would materialize.
Analyzing Kuznets’ Nobel lecture, Todaro comments that the six charac-
teristics of economic growth he sets forth are interdependent. Rapid
economic development supports scientific research that leads to techno-
logical inventions. And the developed countries have the capacity to provide
for ‘self-sustaining technological and economic advance’ (Todaro, 1992,
p. 119) in a way that cannot be matched by underdeveloped countries. But
while these countries may not have the industrial complexes that feed
upon research and development, they must in their own way find ways to
infuse everyday life with technology, in basic fields such as health and
agriculture, and in production.
Von Tunzelmann (1995) demonstrates the cruciality of technology in
166 THEODORE LEWIS

development, citing as illustrations the English industrial revolution, post

civil-war industrialization in the USA, Japan from the 1870s and onwards,
and the progress of selected Newly Industrializing Countries in East Asia
and Latin America. He concludes that successful industrialization involves
coherence among processes, technology, finance and products. Based upon
the experiences of Japan and South Korea, Kim (1980) has identified three
stages of industrial technology development, namely, implement imported
technology, assimilate the technology, and improve upon it. Progress
depends upon the development of local human capability. Felker and Weiss
(1995) agree that we may judge technological capability in Newly
Industrializing Countries in terms of their proximity to the technological
frontier, and the indigenization of technological capability.
Clearly, the differences between developed and underdeveloped countries
may be characterized in terms of a technology gap. The recent phenom-
enon of Newly Industrializing Countries (NICs) in the Pacific rim, and in
Latin America, suggests that this gap can be narrowed, through combina-
tions of technology transfer, reverse-engineering, and new creation.
Technology transfer is potentially the fastest route, though the evidence
has been that transfer does not take place in a social or institutional vacuum.
It will not take place without the absorptive capacity for accommodating
new technology. If tractors are to replace oxen, then there must be mechanics
on the spot who could repair them when they break down. But perhaps more
fundamentally, there would need to be a change in the culture of farming.
The belief systems that sustained traditional farming must yield, if tractors
are to have transformative effect.
Streeten (1984) addressed the problem of technology gaps between rich
and poor countries, and the difficulties of transferring technology. He
wrote of continuous interaction between economic growth, the production
of scientific knowledge and the transformation of such knowledge into tech-
nological and industrial revolutions. According to him, gaps may be due
to imperfections of communication in transferring technologies, or to the
inappropriateness of imported technologies for poor countries. Speaking
from years of experience on the ground in emerging countries, Goldschmidt
(1962) wrote of the need for the development of a ‘science of transfer-
ring technology’. He pointed to the problem of internal differences within
countries, another kind of gap, between town and countryside – modern
industry on one hand and indigenous peasant industry on the other. These
differences were not easily resolved. Goldschmidt wrote of the internal pres-
sures against leapfrogging over intermediate stages of development,
opposition to change being embedded in the social and economic struc-
tures of the societies. He wrote:
The primary problem in aiding the development of the emerging countries is that of
providing the means and improving the methods of transferring technology. Although
the technologies for speeding up development have already amply demonstrated their
capabilities, their application is yet far from general. The gap must be bridged by the social
sciences (p. 592).
 TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES 167

Also responding to the problem of inhibitors to technology transfer, Malecki

(1991) suggests that education is a primary way to promote technical
literacy. The role of people was critical throughout the process of techno-
logical change. People have to accept and interpret new information.
Adjibolosoo (1995) agrees that economic development is a dynamic learning
and problem solving process. Learning alters behavior and ‘cultural
mindsets’. Thus economic development must be propelled continuously
by the interaction of traditional and modern ideas.
Clearly, the quest for strategies that would aid technology transfer is
an important rationale that can guide advocacy for including technology
in the curriculum of third world countries. This is an area where differ-
ences in stages of development are to be observed. Technology the school
subject can clearly be a vehicle of social transformation in the Third World,
if the subject is introduced in such a way as to help children intelligently
resolve tensions between the competing pulls of the traditional and the
modern. But perhaps more importantly, children may come to see technology
not as something that has to be imported; but rather as something that can
be created by people, as they strive deliberately to improve their circum-
stances.

TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION – CLAIMS AND APPROACHES

What rationale drives technology education in the countries where it is

established? Gilbert (1992) suggests that in northern/western countries three
types of reasons underpin the argument for the subject in school curricula,
namely: economic, social and educational. On the economic side, technology
is viewed as necessary grounding for a skilled work force. On the social
side the subject is seen as fostering intelligent consumption and use of
technology. On the educational side, the act of technological creation is
viewed as being the quintessential expression of our humanness, and worthy
of representation in the curriculum on that account alone. Layton (1994)
offers a parallel reading, identifying stakeholders with interest in the
establishment of the subject, among whom are ‘economic instrumental-
ists’ with their eye on competitiveness; ‘professional technologists’ who
view technology as a third culture, next to science and the arts; ‘sustain-
able developers’ who want the subject to focus on environmental and
conservation concerns (see for example Dillon, 1993); and feminists, who
see possibilities in the subject for overturning the masculinist leanings of
societal technology.
The claims of advocates eventually resolve into two primary ends for
the subject, namely, technological literacy (disposition) and technological
capability (skill or competence). A child can learn to appreciate the
importance of technology in making everyday life more comfortable, and
he/she can acquire competencies in the use of computers and machine
tools that can foreshadow a career. There is nothing contradictory about
168 THEODORE LEWIS

making both instrumental and intrinsic claims for the subject. Technology
belongs in the general education curriculum. However, as Layton (1993)
points out in discussing the British case, economic contexts must be a
consideration. Technology education in Britain had to come to terms with
the fact that ‘general education is being vocationalised, whilst vocational
education is being generalised’ (Layton, 1993, p. 11). To be relevant,
academic learning had to ‘articulate more effectively with enterprise in
the man-made world’ (p. 12). Because of its inherent situated nature, tech-
nology’s time had come as a fixture in general education.
Two general curricular approaches, content and process are observable
in the literature. The content approach has been an American preoccupa-
tion. Here technology is deemed to be a discipline, with a discernible body
of ordered concepts (e.g. Dugger, 1988), in realms such as manufacturing,
construction, transportation, and energy. Technology as process, the
approach favoured in England and Wales, has advocates in the US, Australia
and elsewhere. Its focus is upon the creative ways of technologists, man-
ifested through intellectual processes such as design, and problem solving
(e.g. Department for Education, 1995; Jarvis, 1993; Johnson, 1992; Lewis,
1996; McCormick, Murphy & Hennessy, 1994; Rennie, Treagust & Kinnear,
1992). The curriculum responds to the basic question ‘what do technolo-
gists do?’ The starting point of instruction becomes an existential problem
to be solved.
In the developed countries, school technology necessarily lags behind
societal technology. Schools do not have the wherewithal to keep up with
industry. Thus, an issue is the degree to which there should be correspon-
dence between the two. Layton (1994) captures the challenges here, pointing
out the curricular perils inherent in trying to run on the technological
treadmill. He argues:
A commitment to ‘full correspondence’ could lead school technology in the direction of
a ‘high technology’ curriculum involving, for example, computer-aided design/manu-
facturing, computer-integrated manufacturing systems and industrial quality robots . . .
The problems of going down this road are considerable . . . p. 20.

Layton goes on to say that there are also risks involved when correspon-
dence is absent between school technology and the technology in industrial
and commercial settings. Children have to be kept abreast of technolog-
ical discovery, or the curriculum could be perceived as being outdated.
But keeping up involves high costs, and much staff development. The
solution, he suggests, is to teach at the level of universals, that is, conceptual
building blocks that do not decay with the next issue of technology. He
contends that such an approach might well be the way to view the subject
in the developing world. There is much to this argument. Technology edu-
cation can be an expensive proposition when it is driven by modern
laboratories. In Third World settings such facilities would be out of reach
merely because of high cost. But the subject can still be taught viably
with available materials as the starting point. Principles of electricity and
 TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES 169

electronics, or of metal forming and fabrication can be taught in modest

settings. Teaching universals rather than trying to keep up with the latest
technology might be the appropriate disposition for implementing the
subject.

TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Three rationales – technology transfer, human development and skill com-

petence – are evident in the fledgling literature on technology as a school
subject in developing countries. Acknowledging the difficulties of such
countries, Layton (1994) asserts that a goal of technology education there
would be to help bridge the technological gap. But he counsels that tech-
nology is not neutral. Thus, technology transfer ought not to mean the
mere transplanting of ideas from the north to the south. Transfer would
be valid only if it takes indigenous concerns into account. Thus: ‘In the
context of developing countries . . . technological literacy involves the
capability to choose, acquire, adapt and apply technologies as much as to
generate new ones’ (p. 23). Layton’s point is that technology transfer does
not have to take on a colonialistic aspect. Rather, it could be about the
empowerment of people. In the process of introducing new technology,
traditional ones could be validated.
Like Layton, Pytlik (1989) wrote of a changing development paradigm,
where the focus was not so much on efficiency, but on people. This people-
centered philosophy was premised upon self-reliance, creativity, and the
blending of the traditional and modern. We see this shift away from a human
capital to a human development view of third world progress best in the
work of Haq (1995). Haq contends that we must measure development
not in impersonal efficiency terms, but in ways that speak to the basic needs
of people. Thus, indices of development would include quality of life factors
such as access to health care, human rights, education, etc.
A human development conceptual frame for technology as a school
subject in the developing world would not exclude a focus on transferring
technology, but it would include a values component that requires interro-
gation of proposed technology. How will the technology improve quality
of life? How will it improve health, nutrition, or access to water? Will
the technology be in accord with traditional values or will it be disrup-
tive? Technology in the curriculum would at once have to span both general
and vocational education. Students would be taught to evaluate technology,
but also how to employ it.
We see this human development focus interwoven into a more instru-
mental thrust in an account on technology education in Latin America.
Londono (1994) reports that technology education in Latin America is
interpreted in terms of technical education, that is, as preparation for the
work force. But models of education for national development have not
worked, he contends. Technology education can make an impact only if it
170 THEODORE LEWIS

is assumed that ‘education is not the driving force of progress’ (p. 87). Thus,
education must look to the future. Technology education must be a means
of ‘strengthening national capacity for assimilating and generating tech-
nology’ (p. 87). The subject should help students develop an inquiring,
problem-solving disposition. With respect to the products of technology,
he asserts that the subject should provoke the questions ‘How is it made?’
and ‘What for?’ Technology education then, is not about blind consumption
of imported technology. Rather, it is about analysis and reverse engineering,
with a view to developing indigenous capability.
Technology education would not be a brand new subject in the third
world. As in developed countries, the subject can point to craft origins
(industrial arts subjects such as woodworking, metalworking, and drafting)
that were viewed as foundational to careers in skill trades. Reporting on
developments in Ghana, Collison and Taylor (1990) wrote that there the
subject took the form of technical drawing, metalwork and woodwork. They
asserted that the basic rationale for its teaching is that ‘We now live in a
technological society, as such, some knowledge in technology must form an
integral part of the total education of every child’ (p. 27). But in the main,
these authors associate technology education in Ghana with technical edu-
cation, and they describe government policy to both as being ‘haphazard
and sometimes not explicitly stated in terms of direction, organization and
financing’ (p. 32). Their primary proposal for the advancement of the subject
in Ghana is for schools and industry to collaborate. This is a useful proposal,
one suggested by this author elsewhere as a way in which the subject
might be conducted in the third world (see Lewis, 1995b).
Drawing upon the case of Nigeria, Akubue and Pytlik (1990) wrote
that there the subject is essentially industrial arts, and that a vocational
purpose dominates. But these authors write about the potential of technology
education for assisting in improving technical capability. Citing a legacy
of colonialism, they contend that: ‘The major obstacle to Nigeria’s self-
sustained social and economic growth is the lack of indigenous capacity
to assimilate, adapt, and/or create technology’ (p. 47). Technology educa-
tion would form part of the dialogue of self-reliance.
Ajeyalemi and Baiyelo (1990) offer a similar reading of the subject in
Nigeria. They write that prior to the 1990s, technology education was
viewed mainly as training in manual and technical skills, and carrying the
baggage of low status and esteem that attended such education in the
pre-independence era. As these authors describe movements at the secondary
level they do not distinguish between technology education and technical
education. Technology education is about preparation for jobs. At the junior
secondary level the focus is to lay foundations for later vocational educa-
tion. Students take an introductory subject called ‘Technology’, in which
they are exposed to woods, metals, plastics, electronics, and drawing. The
end is to inculcate skill. This purely jobs-related focus does not yield even
at the elementary level, where an objective is to provide students with
skills in the use of tools, with a view to later preparation for trades. It is
 TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES 171

probably an error for countries anywhere to rationalize the subject purely

in vocational terms. To do so would be to miss the whole point of it.
Technology education is different from technical education in its methods
and aims. It is for all children. Unlike technical education, its place is in
the context of general education.
Hodzi and Chagwedera (1990) point out that in Zimbabwe technology
education has gone by different names, including technical education. Since
independence the subject has assumed new status, but is still fledgling.
At the primary level the focus is on agriculture, and at the secondary level,
on woods and metals.
Taking a grand view of technology education in Africa, Kerre (1990)
explained that ‘Technology has no boundaries between the rich and the poor
or the young and the old nations’ (p. 40). He reasoned that technology is
premised upon ‘utility,’ a universal concept. He proposed a general edu-
cation curriculum for the continent that would integrate liberal, scientific
and technological elements. Later, Kerre (1994) offered a pessimistic reading
of the prospect of the subject taking root in Africa. Technology education
was often nothing more than traditional industrial arts, he noted, with the
focus being still upon the teaching of metalwork, woodwork, electricity and
drawing. Rejecting this traditional interpretation of the subject he urged that
countries look to the present and the future as they conceive of the subject.
He argued thus:
The technology education curriculum must be based on current and anticipated techno-
logical systems which society values and wishes to adopt. In Africa these technologies
are best organized around human needs. Such areas of needs include production tech-
nologies (which can be further classified into construction and manufacturing),
communications technologies, transportation technologies, bio-technologies and energy
(p. 114).

What Kerre offers here as organizers of the subject is US style technology

education, and his argument against industrial arts is consistent with pre-
vailing tendencies in curricular theorizing there. He proposes that the
curriculum should leapfrog to the space age. Kerre is an influential advocate
of the teaching of technology in African schools, but I believe that he
might be in error in dismissing industrial arts subjects as a vehicle for
teaching the subject. It is true that in the developed countries advocates
are spurning industrial arts in favour of a more modern approach, but the
reason for this is that modern technology abounds in these countries, and
that high-tech gadgetry is commonplace in the lives of children.
But the potential of traditional craft subjects as a vehicle for fostering
technological literacy, even in developed countries, remains. In the United
States, despite decades of advocacy for the transformation of industrial
arts into technology, surveys routinely indicate that while there has been
significant movement along these lines, the subject remains in the grasp
of woods, metals and drawing. This resilience of industrial arts is often taken
to mean that teachers are resisting change. But another reason might be
that observers are looking for wholesale change and are not disposed to
172 THEODORE LEWIS

see incremental change or qualitative change that does not require com-
pletely modern laboratories. And further, perhaps the desire to shed the
stigma associated with the subject inhibits due consideration of its merits
for purveying technology in its essence. This is Layton’s caution when he
calls for the teaching of universals.
But while advocates in the United States strive to dislodge industrial arts,
seeking to replace it with technologies related to manufacturing, construc-
tion, power and energy, and communication, industrial arts remains
deliberately included in the Japanese curriculum, in their lower secondary
school. Here the curriculum features woodworking, electricity, home life,
and food. Woodworking becomes the basis for the teaching of production
and quality. Typical objectives include: ‘To know the features and proper
usage of wood materials’, ‘To know the composition and proper usage of
tools and machines for woodworking’, ‘To make students examine the
role of wood in daily life and industry’ (Okuya, Miyakawa, Hatano &
Kadowaki, 1993). Here is a case where a major economic power in the world
retains woodworking in the curriculum, seeing in it the possibilities for
teaching broader lessons about technology, in relation to day to day living,
and industrial life. This is not to say that the Japanese curriculum is devoid
of high-tech aspects. Indeed, in upper secondary schools, students become
exposed to mechatronics (combination of mechanical and electronic tech-
nologies) and to information systems (Murata & Stern, 1993). But the lesson
from Japan is that the first response of third world countries to introducing
technology into the curriculum ought not be to discard the old industrial
arts curriculum. Rather, a more fruitful approach might be to find ways
in which that subject and existing facilities and equipment can be recon-
figured in a reconceived curriculum.
I have pointed out elsewhere that craft (along with science and industry)
is a viable context for introducing the subject (Lewis, 1995b). But here is
an area where the dominance of the technology education discourse by
scholars in the developed world has a distorting effect on how the curriculum
should be viewed in the underdeveloped world. Countries should of course
seek to introduce modern features into the curriculum to the extent possible.
Certainly, the fact that it is not a part of the immediate existence of children
in poor countries is not a reason to deny them opportunity to experience
the wonders of, say, laser technology. And it would be incomprehensible
for third world children not to be exposed to the workings of computers.
No country that wishes to be in touch with the rest of the world can afford
to leave access to computers out of the equation of educational planning.
The information age is here, and such is the nature of information tech-
nology that countries cannot have their own time- table for getting aboard.
But technology education is more than education about computers, and it
does not have to leapfrog completely to the space age to achieve its aims.
Available technology might be a more realistic way to anchor the subject
than high technology.
A way around the debate as to whether industrial arts, or more modern
 TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES 173

technologies should provide the backbone of the curriculum in the devel-

oping world would be to take a process approach. The curriculum could
be centered upon design problems. Williams (1992) suggests that the design
route is probably the most appropriate for developing countries. Design is
premised upon constraining factors. A design-focussed technology cur-
riculum can tax students to solve problems using available tools and
materials. Still, a design-focussed curriculum must be premised upon tech-
nological knowledge. Students cannot design or redesign say, a transmitting
and receiving device, if they do not understand the principles and pragmatics
of electricity and electronics.
While sparse, research on outcomes of technology teaching in specific
under-developed countries provide an important line of sight on the
prospects for the subject in such settings. A study conducted in Lesotho and
Botswana (Kent & Towse, 1997), where technology is taught in the context
of the science curriculum, found that boys saw technology as making
peoples’ lives easier. Girls saw technology in terms of wealth creation.
Students generally saw the subject as a means of improving self reliance
in informal sectors of the economy. They believed further that science and
technology had harmful effects on traditional culture.
In a study of the attitudes of Malaysian students to technology, once
they had pursued the subject as a required school course, Yasin (1998) found
that students drew sharp distinction between modern and indigenous tech-
nology. The former was rated to be closer to the essence of technology
than the latter. The students were generally positive about the effects of
technology on their daily lives, and on their country’s development, but they
were of the view that some modern technologies had negative societal or
cultural effects. They thought that traditional technologies should be pre-
served. Rural children had different perceptions on the value of specific
technologies that did urban children. There were ethnic differences here
as well. Students generally felt that technology, though important to devel-
opment, had to be controlled in areas such as impact on the environment,
and moral and spiritual values.
The findings from developing countries are interesting. They reveal a
level of sophistication in children, in their attitudes to technology. The
children welcome modern technology, but they offer cautions regarding
the survival of local creations and the negative effects of cultural penetra-
tion.

OPTIONS FOR TEACHING TECHNOLOGY IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

What then are possible options for introducing technology into the cur-
riculum of developing countries? Options depend upon held assumptions
regarding the nature of technology, and the circumstances under which its
teaching becomes possible. One major difference between developed and
developing countries is that in the latter, students often do not get beyond
174 THEODORE LEWIS

the primary level of schooling. Thus, serious consideration has to be given

in these countries to the inclusion of the subject at this level. Though the
challenges inherent in teaching technology in the elementary grades are
beyond the scope of this article, the approaches I describe next are broadly
applicable at both the primary and secondary stages of schooling. Two basic
organizational approaches are envisaged: technology as reconstituted indus-
trial arts, or technology across the curriculum.

Technology as reconstituted industrial arts

Technology as reconstituted industrial arts is probably the most viable option
for developing countries, either at the primary or secondary stages. As
discussed above, many of these countries may already have facilities in place
for the teaching of industrial arts subjects. They thus have some experi-
ence on their side, including teachers who can operate in environments
where tools, materials, and ideas come together.
Often in developing countries, the subject responds to external exami-
nation syllabuses that are not tuned to local circumstances. The technology
approach would require greater consideration of local-problems. Problems
would relate to everyday circumstances, and could span realms such as
fishing, weaving, ploughing, transportation, and shelter. The key to success
here lies not in the sophistication of the facilities and equipment, but in
the imagination and competence that’s brought to curriculum design and
to instruction. The approach here could be collaborative, both at the cur-
riculum planning stage and as an instructional approach. That is, people
in the community who have expertise could come together to shape the
curriculum and to help implement it. Knowledgeable people from industry,
the universities, and elsewhere in community life (engineers, craftspeople,
technicians), can collaborate with specialist teachers in imagining the cur-
riculum, and in working with students as they try to find and solve
community problems.

Reverse engineering
Following Kim (1980), a major focus of technology programs in indus-
trial arts should be reverse engineering. ‘Reverse engineering’ is the process
of finding out how devices are made by taking them apart. Here, indus-
trial arts laboratories become places where teachers, students and community
experts join together to figure out how things work, through the process
of dissection and repair. The gadgets or artifacts upon which they work could
be donated by industry, or could merely be equipment that is at the end
of useful economic life. Many countries now have the problem of discarding
outdated computers, for example. These computers have instructional value
in third world countries, and could become the basis of finding out what’s
in a computer, and how to improve the performance of computers.
In the same way, lawn mowers and other small engines, radios, televi-
sion sets, refrigerators, or automobile engines, could become the basis of
 TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES 175

children’s exploration, in the primary school as well as in the secondary,

exploration that ultimately leads to the cultivation of a ‘can-do’ mentality,
that is, to technological capability.

Manufacturing and construction principles

Traditional industrial arts laboratories can be transformed to be the basis
of curricula that focus upon manufacturing and construction principles.
Using available materials – including woods and metals – as raw material,
and traditional industrial arts machine tools, it is possible to teach product
design and manufacturing principles. This author is personally aware of such
efforts in particular secondary schools in Trinidad and Tobago, where the
standard of work is such that students have been offering external ‘A’
level examinations in technology and design with great success. The same
facilities accommodate this innovative approach to design and manufacture,
as well as more traditional woodworking and metalworking.
Children can be taught how to conceive and create prototypes, and how
to figure out needed tooling for mass production in traditional laboratories.
They can be taught how to create and prove out jigs and fixtures, and how
to infuse quality processes into production. On the construction side, it is
possible for industrial arts laboratories to be the basis of teaching and exper-
imenting with construction technologies that can solve peculiar local
problems of shelter.

Advantages/Disadvantages
A primary advantage of teaching technology as reconstituted industrial
arts is that experience can be drawn upon. Further, available resources
becoming the starting point. Cost is minimal. Disadvantages of this approach
include the stultifying force of tradition. Getting teachers to shift from
known practice could be difficult, if the circumstances of teaching the
subject remain unchanged.

Technology across the curriculum

Beyond technology via industrial arts lies the possibility of teaching the
subject across the curriculum. This means that rather than a single subject,
technology is embedded in other subjects, or taught in relation to them.
Good candidates for correlation include agricultural science, home eco-
nomics, art, and science, though the range of subjects is not limited to these.
The correlative approach is suited both to the elementary and secondary
levels, but perhaps especially so to the former where teachers tend to be
generalists.

Agricultural science
Agricultural science as a school subject has great potential as a vehicle
for teaching technology, especially because agriculture is so fundamen-
tally a part of rural existence, and so full with possibility for technological
176 THEODORE LEWIS

innovation. Within a program of agricultural studies, children can be taught

the possibilities of fertilizers, crop rotation, and new varieties. Solar energy
applications can be taught in areas such as grain drying. The technologies
that are the basis of water pumps and other irrigation machines could be
taught, and students could be assigned community projects where, working
collaboratively with engineers, farmers and craftspeople, they can gain
experience in addressing real technological problems associated with agri-
cultural production.

Home economics
Home economics is another subject in the curriculum that lends itself as
a vehicle for teaching children about technology. As with agriculture, here
students could see the criticality of technology in an area of human survival.
Areas where possibilities abound include food preservation, and food prepa-
ration. Students could be taught to explore technologies related to drying,
canning, and fermenting. They could be shown the commercial possibili-
ties of local fruit. Solar power could be exploited in the construction of
simple stoves for cooking.

Art
Art is a place in the curriculum where children can learn about technology,
though in an indirect way. For example, they can learn to appreciate design
and form. They can view particular technologies as works of art. Small
children can learn about symmetry in design by experimenting with dif-
ferent shapes in making paper planes. They can learn about economy in
design. They can take an artifact, such as a bicycle, and see how basic
geometric shapes are interwoven into the design.
In short, art could be a place in the curriculum in the third world where
students can be taught to inculcate aesthetic sense, which they can use to
help them evaluate technology, especially in terms of interface with the
environment. Lessons learned in art can be transferred to the design in
manufacturing or construction.

Science
Science could be an important vehicle for teaching children in developing
countries about technology, in the primary school as well as in the secondary.
The challenge would be to find in everyday life, situations that provide
opportunities to show interface of science and technology. Food preserva-
tion and fermentation are examples of such opportunities. Principles of
physics can be shown to underlay flashlights. Electron flow can be taught
in connection with simple electric circuits. Principles of electricity, thermo-
dynamics, and mechanics can be explored through practical technological
applications such as small engines and bicycles.
 TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES 177

Advantages and disadvantages

One major advantage of teaching technology across the curriculum is that
the subject does not have to rely exclusively upon specialist teachers. And
with some imagination and resourcefulness, it could be taught in avail-
able space. Further, this approach is well suited to the elementary school,
where teachers tend to be generalists. The disadvantage is that when subjects
do not have particular champions in schools, they do not get the kind of
attention they deserve. In developing countries, it probably will be to the
subject’s detriment, if there are not specifically designated technology
teachers in particular schools, whatever the approach to curriculum.

CONCLUSION

Resolving problems related to the introduction of technology is one of the

more challenging curricular problems with which comparativists must
wrestle. Judging from the unprecedented attendance of participants from
countries the world over at the UNESCO sponsored conference on tech-
nology education held in Jerusalem (JISTEC ’96), many participants being
from developing countries, it is evident that this is no longer a subject at
the margins. Interest in its establishment is on a global scale. But the dis-
course at such conferences, and in the growing literature on technology
education curriculum, tends to focus mostly on the developed countries.
I have tried here to sketch ways in which one might think about the
subject in underdeveloped settings, framing the discussion against the wider
canvass of technology’s role in development. The experience of the devel-
oped countries is not irrelevant to underdeveloped countries. But there is
need to imagine the subject in terms of the settings where it would be taught,
and in a way that has likelihood of being practically feasible. The connection
between schooling and economic development is complex. Thus, no claim
has been made here that the teaching of technology in schools solves the
problem of the technological gap between rich and poor countries. But
the popularization of technology through schooling can change the dispo-
sition of third world children towards technology, instilling in them a sense
of competence, and the impulse to look within first before looking without.
Technology education can help sow seeds vital to economic independence.

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