Future-proofing D&T
I support Pearson’s conceptual proposal for
‘future-proofing’ design education. As a teacher of Design and Technology I am
a passionate believer that sustainability and climate change education
should be at the forefront of what we do, not simply a bolt-on to existing
design and make projects currently taught in the majority of schools.
D&T is often
seen as the ‘problem solving’ subject; surely the most important problem to address
is climate change. This should be part of the design education fundamentals,
framing the way we teach, and what we teach.
Our world is fundamentally under pressure due to
climate change; a world which is built on a digital infrastructure and language
like never before. The key to the future of our subject is equipping students
to think like designers and critical consumers in the current and future world.
As design educators we have a responsibility to equip our students with skills
for the future. This means encouraging our students to become empathetic,
user-centred, digitally literate, and innovative problem solvers and
critical consumers.
Our subject is expensive to run and incredibly hard
to recruit for. Over my 10-year career I have seen a dramatic decline in
teacher recruitment and a considerable number of colleagues I trained alongside
are no longer in the profession. In addition, I advise at other schools to my
own in an SLE capacity and have noticed a significant drop in the numbers of
students choosing the subject. This has led to pressures on senior leadership
teams to combine their small D&T departments with other departments, often
the art department of the school. This shifts the focus of the subject to art
based or craft-based approaches, which has its own value in the educational
diet of students, which I do not intend to undermine, but it is not necessarily
teaching the analytical, iterative, investigative skills students need to
become the problem solvers, and critical consumers society needs in the future.
These skills are most often lost when the subjects are merged.
With such a shortage of D&T teachers, the
Pearson subject proposal could be what is needed to attract new people into
education to deliver it, people who really feel passionate about design
education and its purpose.
I have also witnessed students are ever more
actively engaged in the current discourse surrounding climate change. Students
I teach want to talk about it, and when given the chance want to address briefs
that have a climate change focus. Many students are concerned about their own
futures and want to be equipped with skills and knowledge to enable them to
critically evaluate the approaches society is taking and design their own
solutions to problems of the future. Students are also more switched on to
user-centred design than ever before. I am always impressed with my students’
ability to think empathetically towards users other than themselves and to
design with inclusion and equity in mind. The curriculum in many schools
already guide students through these areas, but many are still attached to legacy
approaches of ‘design and make’ projects that do not offer scope to be
user-centred or sustainability focussed. Workshop skills have their place
within the educational pathways of many students, but I believe they should no
longer be the central pillar of design and technology education for everyone.
It is positive
to see that so many high-profile organisations have fed into this work, and how
the design community has been able to come together with a shared vision. It is
essential that we teach design that is up to date and relevant to today’s
society; a curriculum that is forward thinking and provides a solid foundation
for the designers and consumers of the future.
