Vocational guidance competencies perceived as important by vocational and technical education teachers in the District of Columbia public schools

Abstract

The primary problem associated with this study was that guidance competencies perceived as being relevant to inner city teachers of vocational and technical education had not been delineated. Specifically, the study sought to answer the following questions:

1. What vocational guidance competencies were deemed most important to inner city teachers of vocational and technical education in the District of Columbia?

2. What differences existed in the perceived importance of the guidance competencies by teachers in various service areas?

3. What differences existed in the responses of the teachers as related to years of teaching experience?

One hundred ninety-nine full-time vocational and technical education teachers participated in this study. Each participant provided biographical data and indicated their degree of importance with 35 vocational guidance competencies. Analysis of data consisted of descriptive statistics to provide a respondent profile and answer the first research question, factor analysis to determine what underlying relationships existed among variables, and post-hoc comparison statistics to determine the difference in the responses made by the study participants.

A questionnaire, with a Likert-type response format, was utilized with response intervals on a continuum of "Very Important," "Important," "Unimportant," and "Very Unimportant." The weighted values were four, three, two, and one. The research utilized a panel of experts and a pilot test of the research instruments. Factor analysis revealed five factors categorized as: (1) Career Development/Job Placement, (2) School/Community Involvement, (3) Guidance and Counseling, (4) Vocational Education Programs: Communication/Coordination, and (5) Competency-based Education.

A major conclusion of this study was that vocational guidance competencies are perceived as important by vocational teachers in the District of Columbia schools.