Humanising the Design and Technology Curriculum: Why Technology Education Makes Us Human

Design and technology (D&T) emerged from a very different education context than it finds itself in today. D&T was to be included in the National Curriculum for England because it was perceived that what children learnt from design and technological activity could not be learnt in another way (DES/WO, 1988). Furthermore, it connected a wide range of subjects across the curriculum, developing capability "to operate effectively and creatively in the made world" (p.3). Henceforth, the role of knowledge for action in D&T, primarily through designing and making, has been viewed as a great strength and unique feature in the subject. The aim of this paper is to reposition and reinvigorate how D&T is interpreted and enacted within the school curriculum. Not merely as an industrial imperative, with its focus on technical and economic matters, but on D&T as a cultural, creative and humanising endeavour. The argument is that technological activity is fundamentally human and integral to our evolution and development as cognisant and social beings. Therefore, to measure a subject by it's so called timeless knowledge in opposition to skill (Gibb, 2016) falls short of achieving a broad and balanced curriculum (Spielman, 2018); in particular a relatively new and evolving subject encompassing the complexity of technology and society, with their complex and changing natures. However, there may be light at the end of the tunnel, with inspection findings of "evidence of curriculum narrowing" in England and the negative impact of focusing on "few measurable outcomes" (Ofsted, 2019, p. 5); which may result in a resurgence of opportunities for pupils to study practical and creative subjects, such as D&T, in opposition to the perverse incentives that have led to said narrowing in school curricula.