FROM THE EDITOR

2009 The Year of Change

Americans are beginning this year, 2009, with a new President, and many problems. The economy, health care and energy are some of the important issues facing us today. During his campaign for president, President Obama, promised Americans “change.” This change will take time and effort from many Americans. President Obama has made numerous decisions to improve this country in his first few months in office. He has brought in many new faces to Washington, but also knows the value of calling upon those with experience.

During my first three months as the editor of the Journal of Industrial Teacher Education (JITE) I have talked to many people who have extensive service and experience working with JITE. Through these conversations I realized that it seems to be the same people doing most the work for JITE year after year. As editor, I have also come to depend on the same manuscript reviewers time after time. Just like President Obama, I think it is time for “change;” we need to bring in more new people to carry the proud tradition of JITE into the future.

Before making major changes to the JITE structure, I am going to take President Obama’s lead and bring in some experienced past members to help guide me in future decisions. My first act was to bring back a past editor to serve as my Associate Editor for one year. George Rogers has agreed to help me get started as Editor for one year, and will work with me to locate an Associate Editor for my second year. This new Associate Editor will assume the duties of editor at the end of my term. My second task is to build a large base of assistant editors, some with experience and some new to the job. I would then like to increase the reviewer pool, bring in new faces to carry on in the future. My last task will be to increase those authors submitting manuscripts to the Journal. I am going to call on each and every one of you to encourage new professionals and graduate students to submit manuscripts as often as they can.

Change is the one constant that we all live with and adjust to. I am very confident about the future of JITE. We have an abundance of experienced people that I will be working with during the next two years, and I am looking forward to bringing in new people (with your help) to carry on in the future.

In This Issue

This issue of the Journal presents five articles and one “At Issue” article, all with a common focus on change to make industrial teacher education a stronger discipline. The “At Issue” article written by Edgar L. Farmer, Richard A. Walter, and Robert W. Clark, stress the need to revitalize and enhance the future for the next generation of leaders in technology education.

In an effort to retain American Indian College Students, Carsten Schmidtke states that instructors must be sensitive to students’ needs by designing and delivering instruction that encourages students to stay in school and succeed. Along these same lines, O.W. Olowa tells us that the approach used by teachers is very important to help students learn more effectively. One approach studied by Olowa was the problem solving method, which is very successful with today’s students.To better meet the needs of students as related to engineering design, Todd R. Kelley and Robert C. Wicklein developed a study focused on the national status for the infusion of engineering design into technology education. Part one of the study is presented in this edition of the Journal with parts two and three to follow. With the decline of leaders in technology education due to retirement, new leaders need to be developed through curriculum leadership development programs. Julia VanderMolen and Richard Zinser write about the need to measure the importance and frequency of job tasks preformed by Career Preparation System administrators in Michigan to support the need for leadership development programs.

Change will always be with us, I hope we all learn to use it wisely.