Innovative futures: design in the Australian Curriculum

Building the innovative capabilities of students is recognised as a national priority for economic growth and productivity, particularly in the context of rapidly developing technologies that are radically changing traditional ways of living and working. Current education policy rhetoric in Australia emphasises Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) as the key avenue for developing innovative capabilities and skills that are critical for an unpredictable future workforce. This policy rhetoric, however, overlooks the potential for innovative capabilities, including creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills to be developed through curriculum areas beyond STEM. Despite being overlooked in the policy space, design is increasingly recognised in the research literature as providing students with opportunities to develop creativity and imagination, and prepare them with the skills needed to face the challenges of a globalised future. However, there are stark limitations in the understanding of how design is represented in the Australian Curriculum, which provides key information for teachers about how to teach design in Australian classrooms. Using qualitative approaches, including content analysis and tools from Membership Categorisation Analysis, this study examines representations of design, including concepts associated with design, across the curriculum. The results illustrate that design and design thinking is represented in multiple ways across the Australian Curriculum and that curriculum documents in key learning areas present teachers with limited and potentially confusing representations of design. In exploring the complex incorporation of design in the Australian Curriculum and specifically within the Technologies curriculum the study examines the implications of these representations including for teachers’ pedagogies and students’ future aspirations.