D&T curriculum leadership often feels like making consequential calls with half a map. When time is squeezed, pupils disengage, policies shift, and senior leaders want clear rationales, it is easy to end up relying on instinct or borrowed evidence from other subjects. I wanted to pause on a simple but uncomfortable question for primary and secondary Design and Technology subject leads across England, the UK, and beyond: what decisions are you making right now where you genuinely do not have the research evidence you would want to guide you?
I explore what “evidence” means in a research sense, and why D&T can be “rich in practice but thin in evidence” when it comes to demonstrating impact on pupil progress. I share how research summaries, including work shared through the Archer Exchange Network, can clarify what has been studied, while also revealing the mismatch between published studies and the problems teachers are actually trying to solve in schools. That gap matters, because it affects curriculum design, pedagogy choices, and the conversations we have with senior leaders.
Using Key Stage 3 as an example, I look at concerns that the national programmes of study feel underspecified and how unclear progression across Key Stages makes sequencing difficult. If D&T capability depends on deliberate development of knowledge and decision-making over time, then sequencing cannot be left to chance or to a string of projects. I also dig into a crucial distinction: is your issue a one-off local challenge, or a recurring structural problem that should shape the next wave of design and technology education research?
If you want to help move D&T forward, finish this sentence and share it via the survey or online:
“One curriculum decision I regularly have to make in design and technology without strong evidence to guide me is…”
If you want to go further, then tell me some more via this form: D&T Curriculum Decision Evidence – Identifying Priority Decision Problems – Fill in form
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