The recruitment and retention of technology teachers in New Zealand is facing a potential crisis point. Worryingly, there are continuing misconceptions about the purpose and nature of technology education, and an ageing demographic in this sector of the teaching community. It is becoming increasingly difficult for schools to attract and appoint knowledgeable, qualified technology teachers. This paper reports research conducted by Technology Education New Zealand in 2020, which explored how the teacher shortage was impacting quality teaching and learning in the country. Initial survey findings indicate that most schools have experienced difficulty attracting qualified technology teachers. To address this issue, non-specialist teachers are being used from other learning areas. Schools have had to adapt their learning programmes to suit the teachers’ knowledge and skills, rather than be responsive and adaptive to their students’ learning needs or interests. The implications of the teacher shortage in technology education are discussed, and recommendations are made as a means to both raise awareness and mitigate risk for the subject’s future enactment in schools.

在新西兰招聘和保留技术教师正面临潜在的危机点。令人担忧的是，人们对技术教育的目的和性质一直存在误解，并且在教学界这一部门的人口老龄化。学校吸引和任命知识渊博的合格技术教师变得越来越困难。本文报道了由新西兰技术教育局（Technical Education New Zealand）在2020年进行的研究，该研究探讨了教师短缺如何影响新西兰的优质教学。初步调查结果表明，大多数学校在吸引合格的技术老师方面遇到了困难。为了解决这个问题，其他学习领域正在使用非专业教师。学校必须调整学习计划以适应教师的知识和技能，而不是对学生的学习需求或兴趣做出反应和适应。讨论了技术教育中教师短缺的影响，并提出了一些建议，以提高人们的认识并减轻该科目将来在学校颁布的风险。