Teachers’ perceptions of social support in the coplanning of multidisciplinary technology education

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by nayy☆

In Finland, technology education is a multidisciplinary field in which team teaching enables technology integration across subjects, yet teacher education does not sufficiently prepare student teachers. Many teachers build competency through voluntary professional development, leading to individual differences that impede joint planning. Social support may enable co-planning, but its role in organising multidisciplinary technology education remains under-researched. This qualitative content analysis interviewed 11 experienced in-service teachers (2019–2020) to identify the social support involved.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages22

Reading Time55 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Teachers’ role in multidisciplinary technology education

Team teaching and its planning demands

Social support as an enabling condition

Finland’s curriculum context and teacher preparation

Sequential and simultaneous approaches to team teaching

Teachers’ perceptions of social support in the coplanning of multidisciplinary technology education Hanna Emilia Aarnio, Aalto University, Finland Maria Clavert, Aalto University, Finland Kaiju Kangas, University of Helsinki, Finland Auli Toom, University of Helsinki, Finland Abstract In Finland, technology education is a multidisciplinary field where team teaching serves as a basis for the integration of technology across different school subjects. However, Finnish teacher education does not adequately prepare the student teachers for multidisciplinary technology education, and the professional competency is often gained through voluntary participation in professional development courses. The resulting individual differences in teachers’ technology education competency hinder their ability to plan such educational offerings together. While previous studies have identified multidisciplinary team teaching as away of balancing out individual differences in teachers’ professional competency, the ability to leverage it depends on the availability of social support. Previous studies have examined the effect of social support in teachers’ professional well-being, but further research on its role in organising multidisciplinary technology education is needed. This study explores what kind of social support is involved in the co-planning of multidisciplinary technology education. Eleven experienced in-service teachers representing different school subjects participated in interviews carried out in 2019–2020. The data were analysed by applying the principles of qualitative content analysis. The findings revealed that instrumental support in the form of new ideas, tools, and methods was emphasised in the teachers’ experiences. The perceived needs for more social support were mainly related to making joint decisions during the co-planning process. The findings indicate that co-planning in multidisciplinary teams increases the versatility of possible implementations of technology education. However, leveraging multidisciplinary team teaching would require more support for pedagogical leadership. Keywords Team teaching, interdisciplinary approach, technology education, co-planning, social support, content analysis Introduction There is a growing body of evidence on how early exposure to multidisciplinary technology education motivates adolescents to pursue further studies in technological fields (Daugherty & Carter, 2018; Shalali et al., 2017; Ward et al., 2015; Yoon et al., 2014) . As teachers in primary, secondary, and general upper secondary education have a central role in exposing their pupils to technology education across all school subjects, it is critical to understand how they can plan for joint offerings in multidisciplinary teams. Team teaching is a process where two or more teachers collaborate in planning, teaching and evaluation of a learning entity (e.g., Alsarawi, 2019; Pratt et al., 2017; Takala & Uusitalo-Malmivaara, 2012) . In technology education, the planning stage often requires understanding of technology and its integration with other disciplines (Bell, 2016; Jones & Moreland, 2004) . Previous studies have revealed that teachers have individual differences in their expertise (El-Deghaidy & Mansour, 2015; Fahrman et al., 2019; Stein et al., 2001) and self-efficacy (Hartell et al., 2015; Nordlöf et al., 2019) related to technology education, which is prone to hinder their ability to engage and contribute in the coplanning process. While multidisciplinary team teaching has the potential to balance out these differences (Kafyulilo et al., 2016; see also Salonen & Savander-Ranne, 2015; Voogt et al., 2016), teachers’ ability to leverage it depends on the availability of social support from colleagues (see Morelock et al., 2010; Scruggs et al., 2007) . Previous research has identified the importance of social support in teachers’ professional well-being (e.g., Greenglass et al., 1997; Kahn et al., 2006

FAQs

Why is social support important for co-planning multidisciplinary technology education?

Teachers’ ability to leverage multidisciplinary team teaching depends on available social support from colleagues. Without it, individual differences in expertise and self-efficacy can hinder co-planning contributions.

What type of social support did teachers emphasize in the study?

Teachers highlighted instrumental support—new ideas, tools, and methods—as a key form of social support experienced during co-planning.

What did teachers identify as needs related to social support during co-planning?

The main perceived need was related to making joint decisions throughout the co-planning process.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by nayy☆