Design Craft and Technology - The New Consciousness - A Report on the Reports

Abstract

One of the ever present considerations of the teaching of design subjects is the problem of recognition, standing and status in the eyes of students and colleagues and of industry and other institutions (notably the universities). Always a preoccupation it is all too often a divisive force between teachers who would be better served by cooperation and recognition of their common conditions. The past years have not seen a significant easing of the situation: the obduracy of the universities, escalating staff shortages and the disappointing lack of recognition in the Finniston Report are·but recent causes of concern. Yet two new publications have just brought important and authoritative strengths to the cause. Together they assemble compelling examples of good practice and present a cogent set of arguments. They put into words - compelling words - what is well known to readers of Studies in Design Education Craft and Technology: that work in the design subjects compares favourably with the intellectual demands of any other subject in the curriculum and that both young people and their teachers in a wide range of schools are capable of responding to these demands in ways that can only be described as outstanding.