TD&T129 Me at The Design Council

A few weeks ago I attended an event hosted by the Design Council with a broad group of people who were pulling together thoughts to be used to lobby the UK government about funding some developments in D&T.

I was asked to share thoughts about what could be done. In this episode I read out my notes, with some extra bits, about my ideas. As usual, I"m open to feedback and comments!

There is more to follow in the next episode which is only available to subscribers and Creator Patreons.

Episode transcript

Mentioned in the episode
https://cls.ucl.ac.uk/cls-studies/millennium-cohort-study/

Ciaran Ellis posted a thought-provoking question on LinkedIn recently: Do design decisions involve value judgements?

What do you think? Join the conversation over on LinkedIn and let us know what you think. 

Transcript

00:00:06 Alison 

I'm going to be reading from some notes that I've shared with a group of people at an event that was hosted
by the Design Council, which was about what were the issues and the impact. 

00:00:22 Alison 

And what could
be the solutions around the decline of design and technology education? 

00:00:27 Alison 

I'm just going to give an overview in this podcast episode
about what I said and I'll attach my notes, but I'm going to go into more detail in a follow-up podcast which
will be available later this week for people who have subscribed to the premium
content. So this
is the general notes that I gave. 

00:00:46 Alison 

On Friday the
29th of September, I sat down in London at an event hosted by the design count. 

00:00:54 Alison 

I'm not able to share an awful lot more about it, about who was
there because it wasn't. It wasn't my event, but I
want to share what I've said and what I proposed, so I was asked to contribute to
the section about what could be done. OK, so this is, this is what I'm suggesting. I I suggest that shifting the mindset about the. 

00:01:13 Alison 

Purpose and
value of design and technology is a key step for addressing the challenges
faced by D&T. We need to work with the teaching workforce that we have, recognising the lack of agents that they have utilised due to localised implementation, interpretation of government policy such as
school performance measure. 

00:01:31 Alison 

Ofsted
framework and limited understanding of the uniqueness of D&T. 

00:01:36 Alison 

I also believe
that actions are made and decisions are made at different levels of influence that impact on design and technology education. 

00:01:44 Alison 

Some of these
are unintended consequences of actions, but some are intended, but either way,
there are decisions made at a macro level that's with governments and national organisations, some that are
made at a more local level. I would call that MISO, which is school and
regional levels. 

00:02:03 Alison 

And then the
micro, which is teachers, parents and pupils. Now, please don't read anything into those macro miso and micro peoples as
implying that one is better than the other. It's just a a description of the different levels and different spaces where actions and decisions take place
that influence design and technology. 

00:02:23 Alison 

And they're now going to focus
on what could be done to address the situation with Dante at the Meso and micro
level. That's with teachers,
parents, pupils and schools.
However, I believe that governments and national organisations need support these actions for change to happen in schools and
classrooms. 

00:02:39 Alison 

For a policy
or cultural change, we do need to find those with power at each level and
collaborate with them, and that's why I think it's important to talk about these three different levels of macro miso and
micro because as different people at each level, you have the power to make the
change. 

00:02:57 Alison 

And we can
make changes at a macro level. 

00:03:02 Alison 

But there's no saying that
that will change what happens at the school. 

00:03:06 Alison 

Or classroom
level. Just because a new curriculum, for example, or a new policy or more
funding comes in, doesn't necessarily mean
that will actually
directly affect what happens in schools. 

00:03:17 Alison 

And in
classrooms? 

00:03:18 Alison 

So there's different
aspects that I places and spaces that I think we can sort of work with and take
some key steps. I think there's a first. 

00:03:28 Alison 

Is about values and
impact of design and technology. 

00:03:32 Alison 

So the focus on the
economy and the potential return on investment in design and technology through
employment, creativity and manufacture,
in my belief, has limited mileage in demonstrating the impact of the decline on design and technology for two
reasons. One, we have little or no published evidence for the causal link
between GCSE and a level D&D. 

00:03:53 Alison 

The country's
GDP, or an individual's income? 

00:03:57 Alison 

What I mean by
that is for Childers study GCSE or a level DNT, we don't have any evidence that says that makes a difference to
their income or their careers. And then secondly, given the lack of requirement
by industry and higher education for qualification in DNT, it's difficult to argue that the subject does contribute to
either GDP. 

00:04:17 Alison 

For an
individual's income and what I mean there is, we're seeing a decline in higher education requesting a level
D&T and that's for all sorts of
reasons. And I'll explore those in the second podcast for this week. They'll be coming out later
for this week for subscribers. 

00:04:32 Alison 

However, I do
think we do need to think about this return on investment. That is the way of
speaking to government. So maybe there are actions that
we can take. So I've proposed that firstly, we actually do fund some
research to see if there is data for a longitudinal study about the career,
health and education of the participants who took part in a Millennium Cohort
study. 

00:04:54 Alison 

And whether
they studied D&T. So let me just step back a little bit there about what do
I mean by the Millennium Cohort Studies, the Millennium Cohort study, and I'll put a link in the. 

00:05:04 Alison 

Notes is a a
study that's been going about
20 years, collecting information from birth right the way through life about
qualifications, lifestyle, health, income and so on. And I believe that there is data within
that that needs exploring. 

00:05:21 Alison 

About what
qualifications people have in relationship to D&T and we can kind of do a relationship
analysis about whether there is related to career health and education in
comparison to other subjects and particular careers. So that's what that's about. I think we need some funding
for that. 

00:05:38 Alison 

And then the
second thing that I think we can do in terms of thinking about return and
investment in persuading government is that there is low recruitment and
retention of D&T teachers. We know that from the figures that are just
recently out that only 26% of the target set by the government for recruitment
of student teaching in D&T has been hit. That means we've got a
74%. 

00:05:58 Alison 

Gap, and I
think there's reasons for that and they're complex, but there are, there is some research that indicates that there's the lack of agency
that people are seeing, that teachers don't have a lot of agency or choice, that it's so much government directive or the way it's been interpreted by local schools. 

00:06:14 Alison 

There's
limited support to critique and develop good DNT curriculum models, so there's a lack of
investment in schools and regionally to support teachers in being able to
critique and develop their own curriculum. There's a suggestion about impositions, possibly too far
about about whether nationally designed models can be taken on into
local schools. 

00:06:35 Alison 

I'm not convinced, and I'll talk about that in the follow
on podcast. 

00:06:40 Alison 

This so one of
my actions is that we need to. 

00:06:42 Alison 

Provide bursaries each. 

00:06:43 Alison 

Year for the
subject, it has just gone up to 25,000, but it does
change. 

00:06:47 Alison 

Every year. 

00:06:49 Alison 

We need to
ensure high quality initial teacher education
and enable DNT teachers to critique critical curriculum practice that's their own and that
of others. OK, that's giving people
space. 

00:07:00 Alison 

To do this and
developing their abilities to do that so that people don't have the ability to do that, but it's more about the space and. 

00:07:06 Alison 

The time to do
it. 

00:07:08 Alison 

So in the second area
that I think we could do some work in developing change is in the D&T
curriculum. So there has been talk of a new curriculum for D&T or for
design and education. And I think this for me this
needs to be. 

00:07:20 Alison 

Approached
with caution. 

00:07:23 Alison 

Firstly,
because a new curriculum is often implemented from the top down, with some
employment involvement from schools and teachers, and this approach reduces
teacher agency and adds to their workload, which is something the government in
England is trying to address. So I think a new curriculum is. 

00:07:40 Alison 

Is another
burden and not necessarily a solution unless there's any direct funding into schools, that is ring fenced for
developing D&T teachers highly unlikely. 

00:07:51 Alison 

That would
happen in my view. 

00:07:54 Alison 

So why I think
this is important to think about is another reason about if we bring in a new
curriculum, is that my research shows and research from others shows that
different values affect the successful or unsuccessful implementation of a
curriculum. 

00:08:11 Alison 

There is a
tension between the values of those at national and local level and
in the classroom between teachers and pupils. So again, what I
mean here is that we can have the intended curriculum, that published
curriculum, but actually then what is taught and how it is interpreted and how
it is received is dependent on the person who's doing the teaching. 

00:08:31 Alison 

The
implementation and the receiving and what they value. 

00:08:35 Alison 

So a new curriculum I
believe is unlikely to resolve this tension. I think we need to better understand and empathise with what people and groups value about design and
technology, education, the perceptions and actions at people at these levels ultimately shape the impact or not of any changes made at macro level. OK, it's again, what I'm saying is what happens at government level or what happens
at national level with the new curriculum. 

00:08:57 Alison 

Can be all
well and good and all nice and shiny and all done with the best of intentions. 

00:09:03 Alison 

But actually, if teachers aren't supported, if
schools aren't supporting their
teachers, if there isn't AD&T teacher in the school who has
an understanding of that, then nothing will necessarily change. We might change
the title. Hopefully not, but that won't necessarily change the content and the way it's delivered and the status and the. 

00:09:22 Alison 

Value of it. 

00:09:23 Alison 

And therefore increase the numbers. 

00:09:26 Alison 

#2 the
existing curriculum, I believe can accommodate important topics such as
sustainability. Design responds to different issues and context as they arrive
arise. This is the subject's strength which is built on an enduring
epistemology, changing the subject's content. I believe when a new issue
arises, weakens the validity of the subject. 

00:09:49 Alison 

The current
curriculum is sufficient and different context for developing pupils. Ability and deity are
possible, I think, within the national the current national curriculum have
gotten aside there, which we'll explore in the follow Up Pod podcast around the GCSE's. 

00:10:04 Alison 

And then my
third area is that I think it's about teacher agency and empowerment is where I think
change can happen. And I think where investment would have a
biggest impact along with the other two is investing in the
professional development to design and technology teachers is a sensible approach. 

00:10:22 Alison 

Teachers need
the agency to shape what they are doing in their classrooms and school
departments, so they become reflective critical practitioners, improving their
practice. And I see teachers crying out for this. I've seen the the fantastic initiative from Liam Anderson
recently about peer reviewing curriculum. I've seen, you know, teachers discussing stuff on Facebook. 

00:10:42 Alison 

And giving
feedback, not necessarily always the most constructive feedback, but people are
there having debates and I think that needs to be developed where people are held in a
professional way to account and knowing that their work is going to be
supported and challenged. I think that's healthy. 

00:11:00 Alison 

But I think there's quite a skill in
being a critical practitioner, which I think is where some investment could be
made to help teachers and support teachers and having the space, the time and the capacity to do this. And I've done a couple of projects where I've I've tried to do this and and build this capacity through
professional development with teachers. 

00:11:20 Alison 

Working
alongside teachers rather than me. 

00:11:22 Alison 

Telling teachers the first one is the redesigning D&T project, which I'm facilitating with three
teachers. Amanda Mason, Kieran Alice and Andrew Halliwell, and that that project is about
empowering teachers to lead a research project about curriculum, designing,
curriculum delivery models, and leading debate about some of the contentious
issues in D&T. So I see my role there. 

00:11:43 Alison 

Is as in providing a support for
those free teachers to do that work, and then for them to support other
teachers in engaging and supporting and right. 

00:11:52 Alison 

And debating
and and talking about some of these issues in design technology and what a good
curriculum delivery model looks like. I don't like that language curriculum delivery model that's best. I can come with at the moment. And then the second project that I've done that I think is around teacher agency and empowerment
is the brace project which is the building research capacity and engagement in
D&T which. 

00:12:13 Alison 

I started last
year where teachers were mentored in sharing their own research with the
national and international audience for shaping the research agenda for D&TI don't think it's me that has the solutions to what the research should be. 

00:12:26 Alison 

In design and
technology, but I really do like bringing people together to debate that, and that's what that project
was last year. And we've had a couple of outputs from that and one being the
researching D&T website. So to summarise, this was my call to action that I shared at this design
Council event because firstly I think we need to get some funding. So analyze the data for the Merlin. 

00:12:46 Alison 

And what
studies to see if there is an opportunity, whether there is data there that
shows a link between studying D&T health well-being and careers? I think we then need to
recruit and retain teachers by
consistently providing bursaries,
developing IT provision and empowering
teachers to critique and develop coherent curriculum models. 

00:13:06 Alison 

I think then
thirdly, we need to understand how different groups at different levels value D&T and
look to empathise with these values rather than sideline the non
economic ones. And I'll expand on that in the next podcast. And then fourthly, I think we need to use the
the current D&T national curriculum to create better practice and outcomes
for pupils and teachers. 

00:13:26 Alison 

And fifthly,
work with teachers to support them in developing agency and critical capacities. So those are my
views as of my views alone. I'm I'm not claiming that there anybody elses and you may well disagree or you may well have others. Other people share different
views. It's not my place here to share what those are. I've I've I've invited some of those people. 

00:13:46 Alison 

Onto the
podcast team come and talk about. 

00:13:48 Alison 

Those in
future episodes in a series that I'm doing around shaping design and technology education. So
those are my views. 

00:13:54 Alison 

About what I. 

00:13:55 Alison 

Thought we
could do what? Where the investment would
be have the most impact in terms of supporting and develop the development of design and technology as
a as a stronger subject in schools. I'm open to knowing what you think. 

00:14:09 Alison 

And there's gonna be a follow up podcast which will be available later this
week for those people who have subscribed to the podcast or have contributed
through Patreon. As ever, thanks for listening, and I'm open to feedback and comments.