Designerly well-being: Can mainstream schooling offer a curriculum that provides a foundation for developing the lifelong design and technological capability of individuals and societies?

This paper is presented as a position paper that introduces the idea of designerly well-being as the underpinning concept for the development of the Design and Technology (D&T) and Technology Education curricula to be more fit for purpose in the 21st Century. It starts by unpacking the concept of design capability and designerly well-being and then reviews the current turmoil around the D&T curriculum in England as a way of exploring the potential of the subject, reasons why it is seen to have ‘underachieved’ and ways in which the curriculum could be re-thought. Examples of initiatives outside of the formal curriculum are provided to illustrate the value of educational activity that isn’t driven by a formal, prescribed curriculum and a case is made for a radical change to the curriculum that reprioritises the curriculum away from prescribed knowledge and skill and towards developing attributes of designerly well-being such as passion, curiosity, enthusiasm, risk taking, competence and confidence – all developed through the activity of designing and making.

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