Shaping the Future of Design and Technology Education in England

In this introductory episode of the second series of my Talking D&T podcast for 2024, I discuss the focus of the upcoming series on shaping design and technology education in England. The series, running from April to August 2024, will feature international speakers sharing their perspectives on the subject in their respective countries.

I explain the catalysts behind the series, including the decline in the number of pupils studying GCSE design and technology and proposals for transforming the curriculum. I have been attending various national meetings about the subject's current state and future development, hosted by organizations such as the Design Council. My podcast aims to bring these conversations to a wider audience and engage them in the discussion.

I have divided the series into three parts, focusing on design and technology's current status in England, what people think about this, and what is being done to address the issues. I have invited a diverse range of guests, including representatives from exam boards, subject associations, and international voices. I hope that listeners will find the series engaging and encourage them to get involved in the conversation by sharing their ideas and opinions. The first public episode will be released on April 16th, 2024, with a subscription-only episode available on April 11th for teachers and other subscribers to prompt further thinking based on the context of shaping design and technology education.

Mentioned in the episode
Design Council: An independent charity and the government's advisor on design. Matilda Agace will discuss the organisation's role in shaping D&T education.

Design and Technology Association, the only professional association for D&T education in the UK, actively involved in conversations about the subject's future.

Crafts Council: The national charity for craft in the UK. Nikki Dewar will discuss their perspective on D&T education and the role of craft.

Pearson's proposal, put forward by this education company, has served as a catalyst for current conversations and meetings surrounding the future of D&T educa

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

Alison Hardy: 1:03

You're listening to the Talking D&T podcast. I'm Dr Alison Hardy, a writer, researcher and advocate of design and technology education. In each episode, I share views, news and opinions about D&T. Hi and welcome to the second series of the Talking D&T podcast for 2024. This one is all about shaping design and technology. Now, it does have a focus on England and I'll explain why in a moment, but you'll find, over the series that will run between now that's, april 2024 and August 2024, that there will be some international speakers talking about what design and technology is like in their country and maybe what some of the issues are as well and what things are happening to change and develop the subject. So this series is about shaping design and technology education. So why am I doing this?

Alison Hardy: 2:02

Well, I kind of put together this idea late last year, in 2023, because I have been attending some different national meetings about design and technology in England about what's been going on, how the subject has got to the position it's in and what needs to be developed next. There were a number of catalysts for these conversations and these meetings that I've been attending. Partly it's the decline in a number of pupils studying GCSE design and technology, so that's kind of post-14, if you're listening, who are international. But also Pearson's put forward a proposal about transforming the curriculum and that led to some meetings hosted by the Design Council, which I've attended, and I've got somebody from the Design Council coming on later in this series to talk about how they think about design and technology education and their role amongst all of this. So that led me to think I'm involved in these meetings. Things are happening in different spaces online with different groups of people. How can I bring that together to bring that kind of conversation to a wider audience, who may not be aware of those conversations or be wondering and thinking what are national and international people doing around design and technology that might be happening at what I would call policy level, that's, government level, national level, in different sectors and led by different sort of what I would call non-government organizations like, for example, exam boards and subject associations like design and technology association, and I've got representatives from all of those coming on this podcast series. So it's like really exciting for me. So I wanted to bring all of those conversations into a public space where people could hear about them and be involved and respond if they felt was necessary. So yeah, so this is the context there's a lot happening around design and technology, attempting to redress the subject's decline in England, and that we're also in England at a critical political time, with a general election anticipated later in 2024, and that might have an impact on curriculum. It might not, because there are a number of other global issues which which may well be taking up government's time over the next year. But I think we still need to be in a place where we're positioning ourselves to inform and guide government, whichever government comes into power. So that's where the podcast came from.

Alison Hardy: 4:29

So what's going to happen in this podcast? So I've kind of split it into three parts. I asked people who I invited onto the podcast to kind of talk to a particular point. So one of them was around design and technology's current status in England, so around the decline, around what the national curriculum is, who teaches the subject, what the situation is with teacher recruitment. Excuse me as an aside, I'm also recording this while I'm recovering from a heavy cold and losing my voice. That's why I'm a little bit croaky as well. So, yeah, so that was the first point D&T's current status in the UK.

Alison Hardy: 5:03

What do people think about this? So I've got David Spendlove coming on and talking about this, and Dave Parry as well, from Cleeps, is also going to talk about from a little bit of a different position than David Spendlove. I've got some other people as well coming on and then what's being done to address this. So I've got somebody from the exam boards, I've got Tony Ryan is talking about their really exciting project, about inspired by industry and what that's doing and what they're doing with primary, and then I'm also sort of broadening it out, thinking about what else can be done in terms of what other organizations think about what needs to be done and what could be done. So that's where I've kind of got some global voices. And I've also got Nikki Dewar from the Crafts Council coming on and Matilda Eges from the Design Council as well. So there's a whole range of people and that's just that's just some of them.

Alison Hardy: 5:58

So I'm hoping you're going to enjoy this, hoping you're going to get involved in the conversation. If, as it goes along, you think, alison, are you going to talk to this person or that person, or what about somebody from here? Or what about me? I'll come in and talk about my ideas about the status, what needs to be done and what is being done, and then do feel free to drop me a line, let me know, and I'm hoping you'll find this a really engaging series. I've enjoyed doing these interviews. I've been recording them since January 2024 a whole load of people. It's been a real privilege to talk to people.

Alison Hardy: 6:33

But as usual, I'll also be doing a Thursday subscription only episode, which is like a follow-on with some other think pieces and maybe drawing on some research as well for teachers and other subscribers you know, teachers who are subscribers and others who are subscribers to kind of prompt some thinking in a different way but based all around this context of shaping design and technology education. So it's just a short one this week, giving an overview, giving an introduction. Hope you're looking forward to it. I'm really excited. I'm looking forward to seeing what the response will be. As I said, you've got any ideas or you want to come on because you've got an opinion, or you know somebody's got an opinion or is doing something really exciting, then let me know, get in touch in the usual ways, links in the show notes and and yeah, first episode for this that's public will be out on the 16th of April 2024, but in the meantime, if you subscribe, there'll be a follow-up to this one that is coming out on Thursday, that's the 11th of April. Okay, that's enough from me for this week.

Alison Hardy: 7:39

I'm Dr Alison Hardy and you've been listening to the Talking D&T podcast. If you enjoyed the podcast, then do subscribe, on whatever platform you use, and do consider leaving a review, as it does help others find the podcast. I do the podcast because I want to support the D&T community in developing their practice, so please do share the podcast with your D&T community. If you want to respond to something I've talked about or have an idea for a future episode, then either leave me a voice memo via speakpipe or drop me an email. You can find details about me, the podcast and how to connect with me on my website, drallisonhardycom. Also, if you want to support the podcast financially, you can become a patron. Links to speakpipe, patron and my website are in the show notes. Thanks for listening.