Dr Alison Hardy

Hi, I’m Alison Hardy, I have been an advocate of design and technology education since I began my first degree in 1988. I began my life as a D&T educator at the same time as the National Curriculum for England was beginning, so you could say we grew into D&T together. I've seen and been involved in the ups and downs of D&T's progress and status in secondary schools.

I believe that D&T is a right for all young people, at least to the age of 14 (feel free to disagree with me here!), but its nature, value and form is contested and causes disagreement both in and outside the D&T community. This disagreement led to me researching what people think the value of D&T is , why they hold those values and what effect they have on how they behave towards D&T. You can hear me talk about this research on my podcast Talking D&T and read some of my publications on ResearchGate. This research is ongoing and I am committed to using this work to bring people together to redesign D&T in a way that keeps the subject relevant and coherent for pupils, teachers and others who have an invested interest in D&T.

Alongside talking, researching and writing about D&T, I support D&T teachers at every stage of their careers. I coach heads of department, teach early career teachers and support teachers in developing their D&T practice. One way I do this is encouraging D&T teachers to get into research, whether that is doing research, using it or writing about it.