Teach Secondary Issue 14.2

A NEW ITERATION Tony Ryan reflects on how D&T has evolved as a subject in terms of what it used to be – and what it now has to be... I n terms of where D&T currently sits within the secondary curriculum, it’s a complicated picture. Our biggest problem is currently staff numbers, which have declined from 15.5 thousand trained D&T teachers in 2009, to around 6,300 now. That’s due to a combination of people taking early retirement and others dropping out of teaching altogether – sometimes because their skill sets make themhighly employable in other sectors. This has essentially left us without enough teachers to cover the subject. At the Design and Technology Association, we regularly hear from secondary leaders who really value the subject, and want it on their curriculum, but are encountering real difficulties in sourcing the subject leaders they need. As such, we’re seeing a growing number of art and design teachers now teaching D&T – some quite willingly, while others have been left with little choice in the matter. Without these non-specialists teaching the subject, there wouldn’t be the cover for it at KS3, so we welcome themwith open arms – but they need support and suitable professional development. Art and design and D&Tmight have the word ‘design’ in common, but they really are two completely separate subjects. Secondary leaders struggling to find staff therefore have a decision to make. Should they push for a thriving art and design department and a thriving D&T department? Or should they – as some have – combine them and provide one offer? Inmy view, by combining those two subject areas into one you’ll only be dumbing both down. From‘making’ to ‘designing’ On reflection, however, do we need to change as a subject? Do we need to move on? Yes, we do – and in the best departments across the country, that’s what’s exactly been happening. For one thing, there needs be an increased emphasis in D&T onmatters of sustainability. The design process behind every object ought to start with a series of questions: ‘ Does does the world need this? ’ ‘ Will people actually use it? ’ ‘ What does its end of life look like? ’ ‘ Will it end up in landfill? ’ ‘ Can I recycle it? ’ Those are the kind of questions that need to be in the KS3 D&T curriculum. It’s not necessarily meant as a criticism, but some schools have lapsed into seeing KS3 D&T as being solely about ‘making things’. Students will make a clock, then a pencil case, then possibly a bird box, maybe a cushion in textiles. Plus, if we’re not careful, we come to be seen as a subject where kids with behavioural issues get sent, because they struggle to sit and pay attention within standard lessons and classrooms. The thinking can be ‘ Let them go and ‘make something instead. ’ We’ve got to be more than that. And in those top departments across the country, we are. They’re leading a move in D&T away from simply ‘making’, to placing more of an emphasis on the process of designing, prototyping – and failing. The importance of failure The school system at the moment is largely set up to ensure that students don’t fail. Deeming it acceptable for students to fail at tasks is typically viewed as ‘the wrong thing to do’ – but in our subject, you can’t create anything new, or really design anything of worth, without first failing. In D&T, you are going to fail at some point. The trick is to “Wewant students to see the world through the eyes of whoever ends upusing the object they’redesigning” 60 teachwire.net/secondary