The hierarchical status of academic disciplines, what design valuable or legitimate knowledge and what should
we teach our children is a topic of much debate. Amidst concerns of an academic decline, tackling the culture
of low expectation and anti-intellectualism, the need to address social justice, and its by-product of cultural
reproduction, is arguably the focus of current education policy.

Set within the UK, this paper presents a critical review of the literature relating to disciplinary knowledge and
teaching and learning regimes influencing design and technology. Specifically, we seek to explore the subcultures which exist between design and technology and its associated curricula counterparts that combine to produce ‘STEM’.