A Century of Professional Organization Influence: Findings from Content Analyses of MVTTEC Annual Meetings

Investigating the content presented at annual national conferences is regarded by many as a valid means for revealing patterns within a given professional organization concerning their interests, issues, concerns, priorities, and research foci, which collectively present an opportunity to provide future direction for the organization. As a result, scholars across many different disciplines have conducted such investigations in an attempt to gain insights into their professional organizations (e.g., Berryman, 1982; Conger, 1997; Fetro & Droplet, 1991; Kiehn & Kimball, 2008; Price & Orman, 2001) and provide guidance based on the resultant patterns. Findings from such analyses of conference content are instrumental in documenting patterns relative to past trends within the field, organizational alignment with larger national trends, and using them to suggest future directions for professional organizations. In the field of technology and engineering education, the Mississippi Valley Technology Teacher Education Conference, today referred to simply as the Mississippi Valley Conference (MVC) is the oldest continuous conference with an entire century of content available for analysis. The MVC marked its 100th meeting in the fall of 2013, presenting not only a significant historical milestone but also a unique opportunity for investigating the extent to which this individual conference may have influenced the profession as a whole. This paper takes advantage of this opportunity by presenting an analysis of 100 years of discussion topics as a means for understanding the significance of the past century of meetings and to offer organizational insights that may prove valuable in guiding future directions for both conference and profession writ large.