From the Editor

In the 26 volumes of the Journal of Technology Education , there has never been a special edition or third issue of an individual volume. It is with pleasure that JTE publishes this special edition, which focuses on two significant content analyses. Like all other articles that appear in JTE , these articles underwent blind review by members of the JTE Editorial Review Board.

The first article was written by John Wells (Virginia Tech) and focuses on the Mississippi Valley Technology Teacher Education Conference (MVTTEC). MVTTEC is the oldest, continuous conference within the field of technology and engineering education. As Wells points out in his article, the 100th meeting of the conference took place in 2013, which is quite an accomplishment for the field. In fact, the International Technology and Engineering Educators Association (ITEEA) only celebrated its 77th conference earlier this year. Included in Wells’ analysis (see appendices) are the topics and coding schemes used to conduct the analysis of the conference. The content analysis provides a thorough examination of the conference and the conference themes that have helped to shape technology and engineering education.

The second article in this special edition was coauthored by Philip A. Reed (Old Dominion University) and James E. LaPorte (Millersville University and Virginia Tech), who served as the Editor of JTE from 1997-2010. Reed and LaPorte conducted a content analysis of the special interest sessions included in the ITEEA’s annual conference between 1978 and 2014. As you will read in this article, the purpose of the content analysis was to highlight conference history, trends and issues, leadership, scholarly research, curriculum, and instructional methods. Reed and LaPorte document how the coding schemes were established to conduct their analysis.

Whether you are new or a veteran attendee of the MVTTEC and ITEEA conferences, you should find the content analyses presented here informative and illuminating.

Enjoy!