Experiences from field research on technology education at ISCED level 2

In 2008 in Slovakia a school reform became into a force. A key part of it was introduction of a curricula reform of primary and secondary education. Currently the results of this reform are analyzed within a project Analysis of the consequences of the curricula reform on technology education in primary and lower secondary schools which is carried out with the support of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of Slovak Republic. Methodology of the analysis is based on questionnaire inquiry. A pilot research of the project showed some weaknesses of the used methodology. The need to find out some additional information to obtain a deeper view on the solved issues and to gather data to reinforce the qualitative aspects of the analysis to its factual aspects led to a decision of the project team to carry out also personal inquiry. There were carried out two kinds of the personal inquiries. One of them were personal interviews with qualified teachers teaching the subject technology at lower secondary schools and the other one was a panelling (focus groups interviews), participants of which were technology teachers acting also in the school leadership. The paper describes the methodology of both kinds of the used personal inquiries, presents their main results and summarizes the most serious experiences gained from these field researches.