How technology makes us human: cultural historical roots for design and technology education

Abstract

In the context of curriculum change within English education, and beyond, this paper explores the cultural historical roots of design and technology as an educational construct, distinct from design or engineering, which exist as career paths outside of the school curriculum. It is a position piece, drawing on literature from a wide range of sources from writing, largely, outside of the discipline. The authors revisit the original intentions of design and technology as a National Curriculum subject and, within the contemporary challenges, discuss the importance of technology, including designing and making, as an essentially human and humanising activity. The aim being to contribute to the theorisation and philosophy of the subject, where typically practitioners focus on practical and potentially mundane concerns. This paper asserts that technological human activity is rooted in technological innovation and determinism, inextricably linked to social human activity. The aim is to add to the literature and provoke debate around the place and value of design and technology. The argument for retention of the subject, as part of a broad and balanced curriculum, is presented from a social and technological perspective; recognising the value of the subject as cultural rather than a merely technical or economic imperative.

Embodying the past, designing the future: technological determinism reconsidered in technology education

“…Today technology education and technological literacy are increasingly broadly defined, and design can therefore be construed as a process in which the students can put their own creative mark on technological artefacts and systems. McLain et al (2019) claim that:…”

Towards a signature pedagogy for design and technology education: a literature review

“…Literature on the nature of knowledge in design and technology focuses on capability and knowledge for action (e.g. Hardy, 2021;Kimbell, 2018;McLain et al, 2019).…”

“…Having emerged from Shulman's studies in professional learning, there is also a growing interest beyond STEM disciplines to the Humanities (Robinson, 2015) and the Arts (Hall & Thomson, 2017). As a subject that appears to have one foot in STEM and the other in the Humanities (McLain et al, 2019), the next section will begin to focus on the second question (RQ2: What can design and technology education learn from how design is taught in higher education? ), by exploring four sub-themes from literature related to design education, as an analogue to D&T in schools.…”

“…The NC identifies the key activity in D&T as designing and making, adding what pupils should be taught about evaluation and technical knowledge. As a relatively new subject, D&T has struggled to reveal its axioms (Bell et al, 2017) and define itself (McLain et al, 2019). The term signature pedagogy has only recently been used in research literature in the field.…”

“…Bell et al, 2017) and the tensions between knowledge and action (e.g. McLain et al, 2019). The intention here is to discover what the literature has to tell us that might help to identify the subject's signature pedagogies and its place in the school curriculum; and develop a discursive framework for design and technology educators to explore (and innovate) pedagogical approaches.…”