What Gets You Out of Bed to Teach Design & Technology?

Reconnecting with purpose is essential when facing professional challenges. In this  reflective episode, I share my experience of an unsuccessful professorial application and how it prompted me to rediscover why I'm passionate about design and technology education in the first place.

The start of a new academic term offers the perfect opportunity to step back from the excitement and apprehension of returning to teaching and consider our fundamental values:

• What drives us to teach design and technology?
• Why do we advocate for this subject?

These questions matter because when we lose sight of our purpose, we risk becoming mechanical rather than inspirational in our practice.

Through conversations with colleagues working on the "Learning to Teach Design and Technology in Secondary School" book and planning a primary D&T podcast series, I've reconnected with what  motivates me – developing children's ability to make design decisions that shape their world and fostering critical engagement with the made environment. This renewed clarity came unexpectedly from various sources, including a chance conversation with my young cousin who simply chose to study subjects she loves.

I challenge you to reflect on your own D&T values as you begin this academic year. Perhaps create a mind map, discuss with colleagues, or identify your "word of the year" for teaching design and technology. Where do you find refreshment and challenge that keeps you passionate about the subject? 

Have you considered what values drive your teaching practice? Share your thoughts, subscribe to the podcast, and if you're using Inspired by Industry resources in your teaching this year, consider participating in our evaluation research project. Your voice matters in shaping the future of design and technology education.

Chapters

• 0:00 Back to school reflections
• 3:10 Professional setback and values reassessment
• 6:40 Why we teach design and technology
• 9:56 Finding refreshment and challenge
• 13:38 Podcast updates and research opportunity
• 17:19 Closing thoughts and invitation

Transcript

Alison Hardy: 0:06

you're listening to the talking dnt podcast. I'm dr allison hardy, a writer, researcher and advocate of design and technology education. In each episode I share views, news and opinions about dnt. It's the end of the summer break for me today and it's back to work for the start of a new academic term at the university. My holidays run slightly differently now than when I was in a school. I don't have the school summer break and obviously I'm talking very much in the northern hemisphere here in the UK and predominantly from England. But I think some of the things I'm talking very much in the Northern Hemisphere here in the UK. I'm predominantly from England, but I think some of the things I'm going to talk about today are relevant. So keep listening, even though I'm talking about the start of a new term, if you're not at that point. So it's given me kind of cause for reflection.

Alison Hardy: 0:58

I've had to do quite a lot of reflection in the last few months, which I'm going to share in a moment. In the last few months, which I'm going to share in a moment, and it's been a while since I've just done an episode that's kind of really just about some of my thinking about design and technology and my thinking for me about design and technology. So I think the start of a term is a good place to try and think where am I going from here and what am I doing? Try and think where am I going from here and what am I doing. So I was thinking about D&T teachers who are starting a new school year and how they might have prepared and how they might be feeling going back. You know things are launching back into full-on teaching. Where I am at the moment, I'm seeing young people already back at school. Moment I'm seeing young people already back at school. I saw people taking their youngsters up for the first year of primary. I've got a primary school just around the corner from me and they're all dressed up and smart and seeing photographs all over Instagram. And, as a former school teacher and you know, working in a university, we all still have that excitement and anticipation and apprehension about the new year and it's very easy to get swept along, and so I think it's worth taking a pause and I've been taking a pause over the summer to think about what I've been doing.

Alison Hardy: 2:20

Some of you may be aware, if you listen to the podcast and get my newsletter and such that this year I applied to be a professor at my university. I'm already an associate professor and I have been since 2022. So I say to my family I'm half a prof or I'm a demi-prof. So I applied to become a full prof this year and I didn't get it and that's taken quite a while and I think I'm still taking quite a while to get over the rejection, even though it's your application that's been rejected and we can all speak from our head.

Alison Hardy: 2:58

We know that in our heart these things hit us in different ways and as part of your professorial application, you have to put in details about the field that you work in and the impact you've had, and so it goes without saying really. Then the run up to writing the application and you have to demonstrate that you meet a number of different criteria, a number of different standards, and that it's been sustained over a period of time. It takes a lot of energy. It took me. The details come out in November and you submit in February, but I'd already started way back last year making notes, starting to pull evidence together and so on. So it takes a lot of energy and you start to realise on reflection, when I look back now, that a lot of my energy around.

Alison Hardy: 3:46

What I was doing was going towards that application, and so the reason I'm sharing this is is not a, not a pity party. I've had my several pity parties. Um, I've done my screaming and chatting and my feeling vitriolic about it and taking it personally. Um, I'm not always over that. Ask me that. Ask me next week how I am and I might be slightly different. But I'm sharing it, um, not not to get your pity, um or your sympathy and I don't mean that in a patronizing way but to say for all of us at the beginning of something new, like I'm starting a new term, some of you starting new terms we sometimes have to take time to think about why are we doing what we're doing? And I shared that about the prof application because the focus became on trying to show that my work in design and technology and the other work I do at the university obviously my core work at the university is around my teaching, my leadership within the department, you know, supporting colleagues and so on how that all can be shown, to show that I'm at professor standard, and so you lose sight, in a way, of holding your values. And I think at the beginning of a term when we're excited um, I don't feel hugely excited, um, because of the blow um we can kind of get swept along and forget to kind of think why am I here, why am I doing what I'm doing? And so I think it's worth taking time to think about our values around what we're doing.

Alison Hardy: 5:18

And for me, in the Talking D&T podcast, I'm talking about the values of what we're doing around design and technology. Why do we teach it, why do we lead it? Why do we write about it? Why do we work to raise its profile, shape its curriculum, its content and so on and so forth, and work with teachers to develop their own practice of teaching? Why do we do it? And, as I said, because I've been writing this application, my focus had gone more towards how I could demonstrate the impact of my work and the benefit of my work, rather than remembering why was I doing it. And so I think thinking about why we do what we do in relationship to D&T is important.

Alison Hardy: 6:00

Yes, we've got to pay the bills, right, that's the bottom line. I get paid to do my job. I don't get paid to do the podcast. I do that in my own time. I'm going to come on to that in a moment as well. That's a whole other little side shoot to this. But why do we teach it? What makes us get out of bed and focus on design and technology? And what I'm doing at the moment.

Alison Hardy: 6:29

The big project I've got on at the moment is the learning to teach design and technology in secondary schools book, doing the fifth edition. I did the fourth edition back in 2020, I think it was, and we're just updating it and hoping that this edition will come out in about March 2026 if I hit all of the deadlines and I've had two conversations with two authors today, one with Debbie about the inclusion chapter and the other with Jamie about the design communications chapter and that gave me a bit of a bouncing back on my tiptoes, because I I do what I do because I love working with people in design and technology. I love their creativity, their thinking, their drive about their subject and with them I share the view about design and technology and what it's for. We might have different values and views about design and technology but in essence, we understand the central idea about the subject, about developing children's ability to make design decisions in relationship to their own way of shaping the world around them with and improving the world around them with things that they've designed and made and the ideas they have, but also their own critical engagement with the made world, and so we're kind of driven by that. How do we make that experience in the classroom for children the best it can be?

Alison Hardy: 7:59

And so having conversations with colleagues today about their book chapters has reminded me about why I do what I do, and I was talking to Janine Pavlis as well earlier this morning. We're planning a whole podcast series about primary D&T and you know, talking to Janine reminded me as well, and I'm going to love that conversation that I have with Janine and Jen about primary and what design and technology looks like in primary education, because it's not my area of expertise. I'm very conscious that sometimes when I talk, I talk about secondary D&T and as much as I try and think it's around primary and secondary, it may well not be, because it's not my area of expertise. So I'm really excited about that conversation and that's another reason why I do these things is to bring those conversations to a wider audience as well as selfishly for me, to help me understand it better, but also to bring that wider conversation to you who are listening, and Janine suggested because I shared with her some of my sort of lack of drive or focus for understanding why I was doing what I was doing. She, she suggested I did a mind map. So I'm probably going to do a mind map at some point and I might share a picture of that on social media at some point.

Alison Hardy: 9:16

So my challenge to you, if you're listening, is to think about you know. What are your values that drive what you do in relationship to design and technology. Do you write that down? Do you say it, it out loud? Do you discuss that with other people around you, whether they are dnt teachers or whether they're other subject teachers, particularly from your primary school? You know you might all be thinking about different subjects or doing bits of design and technology along with bits of other subjects not bits, but you know what I mean. Um, do you all talk together about what you see as the centrality of design and technology and what drives you to teach the subject to the young people, to the children, the pupils, the learners in your classrooms? I think that's a really important thing to do to remind ourselves and set our focus for the year.

Alison Hardy: 10:04

I used to do my word of the year for January. So I'm going to think about what my word of the year might be for design and technology and, as I'm saying that, I think it might be values. That's something I've always been driven by. It's part of my research and I've lost sight of doing my research, so I'm going to maybe get myself back on that. I might even set that as one of my appraisal targets. You never know, oh woe betide appraisal targets. But there we go. That's another aside. So I think it's also once you've done that sort of thing, you've reflected on why you do D&T. Maybe share it with some other people, maybe have a word of the year in relationship to D&T. Take time for you throughout the year to reflect on that and think about where you get your refreshment and your challenge around design and technology Might be in things that you read or talking to people outside of D&T about the subject.

Alison Hardy: 10:57

I had the sadness and the pleasure yesterday of attending a family funeral for my aunt Anne and when I was there, obviously my aunts and uncles and I went with my mum and my cousins were there and I met uh one of my cousin's uh children, and I don't see my cousins. I live quite a long way from from them and so it was lovely to spend the time yesterday. That's, that's the sadness and the joy celebrating my aunt and but the sadness of saying goodbye, but also the joy of spending time with family and I. I met my cousin Richard's daughter, and she's just about to go into year 10. And so I said to her so what subjects are you doing? And she said I'm doing hospitality and catering and I'm doing D&T.

Alison Hardy: 11:41

And I thought there is a girl after my own heart. And it was just she didn't know. You know, you know at that age she doesn't care about her dad's cousins. You know. She didn't know what I did or anything like that. She was talking about herself. And she said you know, I don't know what I'm going to be when I grow up. So I decided to do the subjects that I love and I thought you know what? There's no better reason to me to study, because then you've got the drive. If you to study, because then you've got the drive. If you study something you love, you've got the drive. So that was just a real joy amongst the day. I mean I had lots of joy yesterday, also lots of embarrassment of seeing me as a flower girl for my aunt when I was three, so not that recent.

Alison Hardy: 12:28

So think about where do you get your refreshment and your challenge? Where do you take that time to keep yourself on track about what your focus is and what your values are? This has all been a bit of a wake up call to me about what's my focus and what are my values. You know, looking at the GCSE results in England this year, there's some good news and there's some okay news where it seemed to be holding our own as a percentage, but it's still a very low percentage compared to how it was. That's a whole other story. But I'm hearing good news about recruitment into teacher training for design and technology, again in primary. I was hearing from Janine saying that her second and third years on her primary courses, the electives they elect which subjects to focus on, and in her D&T the elective is completely full. So that's great to hear and so that's the refreshment for me is talking to people like Janine, like Debbie, like Jamie, having those adult conversations about design and technology and why I do what I do. So that's got me thinking a little bit about the podcast.

Alison Hardy: 13:43

I started the podcast externally to the university. Over time I've done little bits of it in university time and I've used it on my associate professor and professor applications, and I've decided that I'm now going to move it back out of the university completely. That might cause me some challenges at work, so you might hear more of me talking, because some people might not be available to be interviewed during the day, but I'm hoping they can be, and so therefore I'm also going to remind people that if you do support the podcast, either as a subscriber or on the Patreon website or just by buying me a coffee, it really does make a difference, not just helping with the running costs. My university I've never paid for any of the running costs and I buy all of the kit. My university I've never paid for any of the running costs and I buy all of the kit. Um, it just helps me be reminded some months that, uh, people do lessen and and are interested.

Alison Hardy: 14:38

God, it sounds like a right sub story. This one doesn't it, but it's not. It's not at all. Um, I want to also, um, just kind of use this for a couple of announcements you may have if you're in England and you are a member of the Design and Technology Association or not a member, but you have downloaded some of their Inspired by Industry projects. You may have received an invite to join a research project evaluating the impact of the Inspired by Industry or just evaluating how well they've gone down in schools and how teachers have responded to them. Well, I'm leading on that research at the university and I'm leading on that with Sarah Davis and Kay Stables.

Alison Hardy: 15:24

We've got a really neat evaluation program for you to get involved in. You have to really be teaching using an inspired by industry in the academic year coming, that's, from September 2025. However, we are going to be asking some questions of people who have previously used it and who may be using it or may not be using it, but we're really looking for some schools who can get involved in this longitudinal part of the study. You don't have to start in September, but we'd like to get you on board as quickly as possible and that, if you come on board, we've got some surveys to give you and teachers and pupils and parents and we've got some tests we'd like you to run with the children that I think you'll find absolutely fascinating and may well take on board as assessments for pupils' D&T capability and then some stuff to do at the end as well, but you get. I think the best part of it is you get to spend some time online talking to me. I mean what's not to like, no? But in all seriousness, I think if you get involved, you could really help the Design and Technology Association make sure that what they're doing is fit for purpose and how to make it better. So drop them an email if you've listened to the podcast. We're looking for people to recruit people really by the end of September 2025 at the latest. We could run into early October if we had to have.

Alison Hardy: 16:49

I got any other announcements. No, just keep listening to the podcast. Reflect on your values. Why do you do what you do? Maybe think of one word, and if you're in England and you've used Inspired by Industry you've downloaded them, you might be using them this year then let us know. Either email me or contact the association and look out for the D&T book that'll be coming out in March, but I'll be talking to you before then. So it's a bit of a ramble. Thank you for listening and I wish you all the best for a new school year.

Alison Hardy: 17:25

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, dralisonhardycom. Also, if you want to support the podcast financially, you can become a patron. Links to SpeakPipe, patreon and my website are in the show notes. Thanks for listening.