Design education in schools: an investigation of the Australian Curriculum: Technologies

Design education as a field is growing rapidly due to its potential to develop the capacity of students to become creative and imaginative thinkers. In addition to these key twenty-first century skills, design education can also equip students with problem solving skills and innovative capabilities. The purpose of this paper is to build an understanding of how design is represented within the Australian Curriculum: Technologies document and critically explore effects of these representations within and between Key Learning Areas. The paper makes a contribution to design education in school contexts through an empirical analysis of curriculum documents to illuminate the complexity of the concept of design and the pedagogical implications of its multiple representations in this curriculum document. The analysis includes identification of the Key Learning Area in which design is most frequently represented across the Australian Curriculum. Content analysis with concept mapping are used to interrogate how design is represented within and throughout curriculum documents. We also undertake a critical examination of how design is positioned in the curriculum and the implications of such positioning. The paper argues the need for strong, unambiguous representations of design to inform curriculum and pedagogy. Clarity of the representation of design will contribute to the development of innovative capabilities in students and help to prepare them for an uncertain future.