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A comparative study of the content of two documents: The Design & Technology National Curriculum in England and New Zealand's Technology Curriculum

Atkinson, Stephanie (2019) A comparative study of the content of two documents: The Design & Technology National Curriculum in England and New Zealand's Technology Curriculum. In: PATT37:Developing a knowledge economy through technology and engineering education. University of Malta, Msida, Malta, pp. 13-24. ISBN 9789995714796

Item Type: Book Section

Abstract

This paper presents the findings of a small-scale project that looked at whether the present Design and Technology (D&T) National Curriculum (NC) for England promotes the development of technological capability to support the generation of economic value through enhancing human capital. The English D&T NC has been in existence for 30-years with a number of iterations during that time. Throughout that time-span the technological world in which D&T education exists, has changed beyond all recognition. This paper looks briefly at the concept of the knowledge economy and the development of human capital in a technological world. It then examines whether the English NC for D&T has evolved through its various iterations. A comparison between the most recent edition of the D&T NC document and the latest New Zealand Technology document through an analysis of the words used in each document was carried out utilising the frequency of all the meaningful words in the two documents. The data would suggest that there has been little change in the English version through its various iterations whereas in the NZ document there is a focus that explicitly embraces the developing technological world. The conclusion from the analysis suggests that a more overt recognition of technological change is required in the next iteration of NC D&T if those both inside and outside the D&T community are to recognise and believe in the worth of the subject for the education of students in their acquisition of human capital that will enable them to fulfil a role in the successful economic development of England and indeed the United Kingdom.

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More Information

Depositing User: Stephanie Atkinson

Identifiers

Item ID: 10863
ISBN: 9789995714796
URI: http://sure.sunderland.ac.uk/id/eprint/10863
Official URL: https://www.um.edu.mt/events/patt2019

Users with ORCIDS

ORCID for Stephanie Atkinson: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1217-8311

Catalogue record

Date Deposited: 13 Jun 2019 10:45
Last Modified: 18 Dec 2019 16:08

Contributors

Author: Stephanie Atkinson ORCID iD

University Divisions

Faculty of Education and Society
Faculty of Education and Society > School of Education

Subjects

Education > Educational Research
Education

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