Preparing learners for the innovation economy : it’s time to rethink almost everything about
Main Article Content
Abstract
Have you ever noticed that when the economy
shows strong growth in job creation, the stock
market often drops, when jobs are slashed by
as many as thousands or that when a company
invests in new labour replacing technology in
its production, the stock value of the
companies involved rises (Chasan, 2006;
Isidore, 2005)? Despite all the efforts to
produce skilled people in traditional fields, the
tide of sustainable employment in those areas,
appears to be structurally prohibitive raising
basic questions of whether traditional
perceptions of Technology in school curriculum
remains viable and whether a rethink of why
Technology ought be taught is now due for a
new discourse. In our complex new world, the
one right here and now and unfolding outside
the school gate, we ought cast forward and
rethink the new opportunities before us with
Technology studies as a subject in waiting.
This paper explores the proposition that, in the
context of understanding the role of innovation
and knowledge in the world economy, it may
be time to completely rethink the role of
Technology in schooling as having a unique
purpose in the curriculum. One that is
characterised by its focus on graduate
attributes rather than specific traditional
equipment skilling expressed in the finish of
‘objects’ and by its responsive behaviour to a
modern world economy, with complex social
and ecological pressures.
shows strong growth in job creation, the stock
market often drops, when jobs are slashed by
as many as thousands or that when a company
invests in new labour replacing technology in
its production, the stock value of the
companies involved rises (Chasan, 2006;
Isidore, 2005)? Despite all the efforts to
produce skilled people in traditional fields, the
tide of sustainable employment in those areas,
appears to be structurally prohibitive raising
basic questions of whether traditional
perceptions of Technology in school curriculum
remains viable and whether a rethink of why
Technology ought be taught is now due for a
new discourse. In our complex new world, the
one right here and now and unfolding outside
the school gate, we ought cast forward and
rethink the new opportunities before us with
Technology studies as a subject in waiting.
This paper explores the proposition that, in the
context of understanding the role of innovation
and knowledge in the world economy, it may
be time to completely rethink the role of
Technology in schooling as having a unique
purpose in the curriculum. One that is
characterised by its focus on graduate
attributes rather than specific traditional
equipment skilling expressed in the finish of
‘objects’ and by its responsive behaviour to a
modern world economy, with complex social
and ecological pressures.
Article Details
How to Cite
SEEMANN, Kurt.
Preparing learners for the innovation economy : it’s time to rethink almost everything about.
Design and Technology Education: an International Journal, [S.l.], v. 11, n. 2, may 2008.
ISSN 1360-1431.
Available at: <https://www.ariadne.ac.uk/DATE/article/view/Journal_11.2_RES3>. Date accessed: 24 sep. 2022.
Keywords
Innovation education ; Design and technology ; Technacy education ; Graduate attributes ; Knowledge economy ; Capacity to synthesise ; Frontier education
Issue
Section
Research
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