CTE Teachers and the Process of CTE and Science Content Integration

The integration of career and technical education (CTE) and academic curricular content represents a challenge for CTE professionals. Currently, little is known about the process of integrating science into secondary CTE programs. Grounded theory method was employed to create information about CTE teachers' perspectives of and experiences with the process of CTE and science content integration. From the perspective of the CTE teachers involved, integrating CTE and science content resulted in their programs of study being adapted into something very different than they were before the process of integration was begun. The CTE teachers revealed that evolutions in their programs of study and themselves were associated with three other categories within the grounded theory: connecting; enacting; and futuring. The findings indicate that the process of CTE and science content integration represents a deep and complex episode for CTE teachers. The findings also reveal that the process of CTE and science content integration requires connecting to others, putting ideas into action, and an orientation towards the future.