The Design and Technology Book Club for Teachers
By Claire Vickery, Head of Design & Technology; Buckler’s Mead Academy, Yeovil. Doctorate in Education candidate; NTU.
Arguably, one of the most valuable forms of continued professional development is the exchange of professional dialogue with others. However, during my recent research into design and technology (D&T) education, many teachers expressed the idea that their busy timetables confined them to their classrooms. Or that they were a in small department, a lone specialist teacher or, indeed their classroom was some way from colleagues. This meant they had limited opportunities to hold professional dialogue with other teachers of their subject.
I have always valued talking to others to strengthen my professional practice, so my research prompted me to consider what I could do to make a difference to teachers of our subject who found themselves in this position. I wanted to enable them to have the opportunity to connect with other like-minded teachers to encourage professional dialogue. Not only would this promote the professional and personal development of teachers, but also, I hoped would strengthen the D&T community.
Some weeks later, as I was flicking through my copy of Debates in Design and Technology Education (Owen-Jackson, 2013) I yearned to have others there with me to listen to their views and discuss some of the topics raised in the book. It was from this moment The Design and Technology Book Club for Teachers was born.
As a full-time teacher myself and head of design and technology, it was important that the book club did not become a burden but provided an opportunity for personal and professional development. I was keen that teachers of D&T education were welcomed, wherever they were in the world and at whatever stage of their pupils' education. They could sign up for as many or as few meetings as they chose, using an online booking system. To promote a safe environment where everyone felt able to contribute, tickets were limited ensuring that the meetings did not become too overwhelming or chaotic. Each month a book would be voted for by members to read independently, which we would discuss during our subsequent meeting. Due to the high number of bookings, many meetings focussed on the same book, yet the conversations within each meeting and the variety of teachers that attended offered very different insights.
Since our first meetings last December, there have been several highlights, especially the meetings which discussed Redesigning D&T…Talking…Thinking (Hardy and Norman, 2021) and Design Thinking in the Classroom (Lee, 2022). During both of these months, we were kindly supported by the authors of the books. This included visits from Alison Hardy who discussed the future of D&T with members and David Lee who kindly answered some of our questions, to provide further insight into his experiences.
In this new academic year, we will be broadening our discussions with the addition of journal articles and podcasts. The addition of shorter reads and podcasts will reduce the time spent reading and thus allow the club to become more accessible to all. If you would like to become involved, you can use the contact details below to hear of upcoming events and book your tickets.
References
Hardy, A. and Norman, E. (2021) Redesigning D&T…Talking…Thinking. Loughborough, Loughborough Design Press.
Lee, D. (2022) Design Thinking in the Classroom. Berkeley, Ulysses Press.
