U.S. News & World Report has consistently listed The Ohio State University as having the top graduate program for training teachers in vocational/career and technical education. However, no one has yet fully documented the long and storied history of teacher preparation in this broad field of study at OSU. By interpreting a vast collection of internal papers in university archives, searching library databases for outside works, and exploring OSU’s expansive photo collections, our research team found that the vocational/career and technical teacher education program has weathered a series of many governmental policy changes, cultural shifts, and progressive initiatives taken by the university, the state of Ohio and the national landscape, while continuing to offer a premier curriculum in vocational/career and technical teacher education. We now have a better understanding of the historical timeline of the program and the overall successes and challenges experienced, which has enormous implications for the future prosperity of career and technical education, both in Ohio and across the nation.
The Authors
Dr. Chris Zirkle is an Associate Professor in the Department of Workforce Development and Education within the School of Physical Activity & Educational Services in the College of Education and Human Ecology
At the time this project was initiated, Matt Yauk was an undergraduate student majoring in Integrated Business Education. He graduated in June of 2009 from the College of Education and Human Ecology with a Bachelor of Science in Education.
Research Questions
- What were the key events that led to the current state of Career and Technical Education teacher preparation at The Ohio State University?
- What is the overall timeline for these events and policies?
- Who were the most influential people involved in the creation of vocational teacher training at OSU?
Acknowledgements
This project was initially supported through Research on Research, or “R2”, a summer program created by The Ohio State Office of Technology Enhanced learning and Research (TELR) and the Digital Union that brings the faculty research experience into the undergraduate learning environment.
The authors wish to acknowledge and thank the following people for their extraordinary help and guidance in the creation of this research project:
- Bertha Ihnat – University Archives and Manuscripts
- Kevlin Haire – University Photo Archives