TD&T110 Redesigning D&T part 2

This is the second of 3 episodes launching the Redesigning D&T project.

Listen to all 3 and fill in the survey: Do you agree with the contentious questions?

You might find it helpful to download the discussion notes: Contentious questions

Episode transcript

Mentioned in this episode

TD&T13: Talking design and/or technology 2.0 with David Spendlove
Our book: Redesigning D&T

Related episodes:
TD&T18: How can design not be considered as central to engaging with the future?

TD&T22 What designers know and how they know it

TD&T28 Eddie and Alison talking about D&T and epistemology

TD&T31 Are there different ways of knowing?

The Kurt Seeman episodes: 33 - 34, 36 & 37

TD&T13: Talking design and/or technology 2.0 with David Spendlove

TD&T107 Talking about the rise and fall of D&T with Professor David Spendlove

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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: 0:56

So this is part two of this series of three episodes I'm doing launching the redesigning D&T project. You don't have to listen to the three podcasts in order. But I do advise that you listen to all three podcasts. So the first one was episode 109. This is 110. And this third and final one, for now will be 111. Sec, that's kind of just to just to make sure everything checks in and read those, listen to those three. But this is episode two. And in this episode, again, I'm going to do after the first episode and talk through some contentious questions that I think we haven't yet answered or resolved in design and technology. Now, before I go any further, there is a survey that I'm asking people to fill in, after listening to the episodes or after you've listened to one can fill in the survey as many times as you like. And I've had a look at some of the responses I've had. And so first of all, thank you to people who have responded, that's great to see people are engaging, and wanting to contribute and think about, what do we mean by some of these questions that I'm asking. But what I have picked up on is that people aren't quite responding to the survey in the way that I anticipated or want them to. And I think that is my fault in the way I'm explaining this. So let me just step back. So I've got this series of contentious questions, that you can find the link in the show notes to see all of the contentious questions. Me and Eddie Norman came up with these questions as a starting point to say, Well, maybe if we're going to redesign d and t, we need to actually sort out what the answers to these questions are. So we sat down over lunch one day and and wrote these questions out. That's what's on the link that can find the show notes to the contentious questions. And then after lunch, we sat there and thought, well, these are what we think the questions are. And take note, we haven't answered the questions. What about the people that are involved in this subject? In practice, the teachers to the teachers agree that these are the right questions. So that's what we're asking at the moment, is not what the answers are to the questions is whether you agree that we've got the right questions, or are we missing any questions? So I'm hoping that that is clear to people. So if you've already filled it in and you think, Oh, maybe I didn't answer that question, or that survey in the way, Allison was hoping I do that, do you feel free to go back and answer it again? You know, it's open, there's no restrictions on the amount of times that you fill it in. But please note, at this stage, I don't want your answers to the questions. Okay. I was just want to check, have we got the right questions? So for example, one of the questions from last time was, is deity, a vocational or academic subject? And somebody I had a conversation with, later that week after it came out, said, I think you're missing something else. And it's not just is it a vocational or academic debate is? Is it vocational, academic, or technical? So that's the sort of thing we're looking for. Is somebody saying, you've got a good question there. But you've got this missing? Or you're asking that question. But I don't really think it's contentious. I don't think it needs resolving. So that's what we're looking for. If you do have answers to the question, you do have a viewpoint. Hold on to that. I've had somebody else, contact me and say, Alison, I've been talking about these sorts of questions with lots and lots of different teachers. And I've got some answers that I could share with you. And I'm thinking, that's great. That's great. I want those answers. But not yet, because we're not at that stage in the project. Because we need to get the questions sorted, first of all. And the other thing is, if you've got other people's viewpoints, and we have people doing all sorts of things all over the UK and beyond about design and technology and what it is and what the nature of the subject is, when people are holding discussions, and they might have collected views and ideas. I can't take those views and ideas into this project unless the people who had those views and ideas give me permission if that makes sense. So there is a process that I need to go through it is about being ethical, and making sure that people who are taking part know they're taking part. But hold your horses on your answers to the questions because we're going to come to those in 2023. At the moment, we just want to check that we've got the questions, right, that we've got all the questions we need to answer. And that we've got the questions are written fully. Hope that makes sense. I'm sure when I check the survey, before I record the next episode, that there might be some other things that aren't quite right. But that's okay. That's the nature of doing a research project that you're also doing it in a style of consensus. And the design project, I tell you what, just setting the project up was blow my head off. So anyway, over to these questions. So last time, I talked about the nature of design and technology, we had six questions about the nature of D&T. This time, I'm going to talk about the content of design and technology. And I've got 12 questions. This is what mean anything, the questions are that we need to answer. And we need to get agreement on. But do you agree? So the first one, number seven, because we're six last time is design? Is it an art? Is it art technology, or science? Or humanities? I don't know. Right? I'm sure you've got an opinion. But is it a question that needs resolving? So design is the art or technology or science or humanities? Question aids we've written as a statement, but it could also be written as a question that craft has no place in D&T. Now, I think that that is a contentious question. I see Facebook comments about teaching children craft skills. And then I see other Facebook comments about this is about using computers to design and manufacture. So therefore it's not craft. And there's all sorts of views in between in between those two. So So number eight craft has no place in DNA. Number nine is their design knowledge. Now, if you've listened to the podcast episodes, where Eddie talks about designing knowledge, you'll know what Eddie's view is. But there are some people that don't agree, possibly. So is that is it a question that we need to explore? Number 10? What is interdisciplinary knowledge in design and technology? i That's a tricky question. Because we have to work out what do we mean by disciplines? Number 11 is making vital to d and t. Now, some people might say, well, we don't need that question is making vital D&T as well as number eight, craft has no place in D&T, because aren't they the same way that I think there is a difference between craft and making, you might disagree. So feel free to come back to me and say we don't need those two questions. We just need one of those questions. So you know, but we've changed the wording. So that's, that's the kind of feedback I'm after at this stage. Number 12. Is there a design process? Now my view is No, there isn't. So I don't think that's a contentious question. But me and Eddie have put that in there, because we so often hear the word VA added in front of the phrase design process. So there seems to be a perception among some people, that there is a single design process. So that's why we put it in there because we think it does need to be debating debated, even though we already have our viewpoint because this isn't about what me and Eddie think the answers are. What we're asking is, are these the questions? Number 13? Has science got anything to do with D&T? Just because the national curriculum and the GCSE specification say it does doesn't mean it has. So but is it a question that we need to answer? Or is it something that's actually already resolved? Number 14, what is design thinking? If you listened to Episode 13 of the podcast, with me and David Spendlove, talking about design and design thinking, you'll see that you know, were sort of trying to debate what what it is and there are different views do can we reach a consensus? Is this a question to ask 15 what the values have to do with d and t? Now, let me let me clarify this one. So in my other research, I talk about what do people say is the value of design and technology. But here what we're talking about is the values that we teach children about in design and technology, or do we Okay, so do we even need to answer this question? Are there different perspectives on this? 16 are textiles just another material in design and techno Okay, so people who know me well know that my very good friend Sarah Davis has a background in, in textiles, and how me and her have debated and worked and, and we see textiles being moved out to art and design very often in England at the moment in schools, in schools and secondary schools, particularly. And I suppose I'm putting that on the table, because I think we need to debate it. But you might not. Okay. Number 17? Are some materials more important than others? Indian tea? Just leave that one there. Is that a question that we need to debate? And number 18? The last question that I've got in this section is, our materials just another technology seemed to focus a lot in design and technology and a lot of lessons I see. Talking about materials and materials properties. But do we do that at the expense of others? That's kind of my thoughts on the different sides to that question. Whether that needs debating? I don't know. I think it does, but do you? So I go back to these type of questions and say, in terms of thinking about the content over design and technology curriculum? Are we asking the right questions that we need to debate and agree on before we design a curriculum? Or have we missed something? So that's what I'm, that's I'm really looking for your opinion on. And as I keep saying, design and technology, I know that if Professor David Spendlove is listening, it will be saying, Allison, let it go. We might not need to be calling it design and technology, no longer it might be design. It might be technology. What we're looking at here is designing design and or technology. 2.0. So when I go back to the questions from two weeks ago, when we talked about the nature of D&T number two, should the subject be called design, or design and technology? You can hear that David and I are already debating that. But you need to think do we need to answer that question? So I hope that's clear. I'm not sure it is because it is really hard to explain this process. I'm really interested in your views, or whether we're asking the right questions that needs to be resolved. These are the questions that we think have been bubbling under the surface for a long time about design and technology. And that people we think, take stances on these questions. And we think they need we need to get some consensus in the community on these questions. Before we can redesign design and or technology 2.0. But before we start getting the consensus, we need to work out, are we asking the right questions. And that's where you come in, in this part of the project. Follow the link in the show notes to the survey. Do that as many times as you like? Let me know, are these the right questions? And if they are, which ones are particularly the right questions. And if there's some questions that we don't need to answer, then let me know in the survey. And if you've got questions that you think we've not thought about that, again, put those in the survey, that's what we want to know, we want your views on, what do we actually need to debate and resolve about design and technology before we can move forward in terms of redesigning it. So that's my thing. If you want to fill out the survey, it's in the show notes. In the survey, I asked you to get involved beyond filling out the survey, you don't have to, you can do that in a number of different ways you can say I want to be part of the next round, I want you to show me what people say so I can get involved in finalising the questions. Or if you want to get involved in a research project, then you can say I will be part of the project team because as I get the data in any people to be involved in analysing it. So you can do that. Or the third way you can get involved is you've got your own networks, your own design and technology networks of people who have opinions. Let them have links to the episodes and to the show notes and to the survey and ask them to fill out the survey because the more responses we get, then the more credible the work is because people's voices are being heard and not excluded. Because these questions that me and Eddie have written are our questions but we don't teach the ante anymore. And what we're really interested in is Supporting designer technology teachers in redesigning the curriculum for the subjects. And we think we need to start by sorting out what questions remain unresolved. Hope that all makes sense. I'm going to make a quick plug at the end for a couple of other things that are going on. Firstly, my good friend, Matt McLain is chairing the conference next October. This is October 2023. It's called PaTT40. You can find the Twitter accounts on social media for us on Twitter, obviously, and on Instagram. It's a conference about where people present their design and technology research. We know there's lots and lots of teachers who've done research about design and technology. Please think about entering an abstract. If you are part of silence my newsletter, I will be publishing some details about how you can join me online. And I can support you in getting something in for that conference. Or if you don't want a present at the conference, you can sign up and come along deliberately time for half term in 2023. And then the second thing is, again, if you follow me on social media, you'll see myself and Sarah Davis went up to Manchester last week, and we met up with Matt, and we went to the Whitworth gallery and we saw an exhibition that had been co curated by Rose Sinclair from Goldsmiths, University of London. It's a fabulous exhibition. It's about the designer Althea McNish. She's a designer of colour. As Rose pointed out to me, she doesn't appear in any designer technology textbooks. But she has done some fantastic work. And so Rose has co created this exhibition. It's been in London, it's now in Manchester. It's exhibiting her work. It's just fantastic. You know, I've talked on the podcast in the past about decolonizing, the D&T curriculum, we've got the debates book coming out in December, where we do some work in there about how do we do race in D&T. So it was great to go along and support rose, it was great to see the exhibition. If you're a D&T teacher in and around Manchester, then I really would strongly encourage you to go to the Whitworth gallery in Manchester and go and have a look at that exhibition. Those my two plugs as I end the podcast, but also I'm going to come back to my main focus of the podcast which is Do you agree whether these are the contentious questions? Thanks for listening. There'll be a third episode coming out in two weeks time.