Creativity in Design & Technology

Abstract

The background to this paper was a 2002 seminar that brought together various stakeholders, including teacher trainers, local authority advisors and inspectors, professional associations, government departments, and secondary school teachers. This collaboration aimed to investigate whether creativity was indeed in crisis within the design & technology classroom.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and analyse the opportunity for creativity in design and technology learning in England. The methodology used was a thematic document analysis focused on the English National Curriculum from 2002 to the present day.

The key finding is that across the four pedagogical approaches to teaching design and technology, there are many opportunities to encourage creative activity. However, this paper asks: has anything truly changed since 2002?

The seminar's findings were published in 2002 as Creativity in Crisis by Nuffield Design & Technology and the Design and Technology Association.