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The Most Pressing Of These Problems Concerns The Role Ascribed To Teachers, ...

The most pressing of these problems concerns the role ascribed to teachers, particularly secondary sector teachers, since the introduction of statesponsored targets for schools and teachers at the end of the 1990's. This, in addition to other needless testing measures, has constituted ‘policy overkill' on the part of the New Labour government and has severely restricted the flexibility of students both north and south of the border to tailor lesson plans that are of benefit to all students in the classroom. Because of the incessant bureaucratisation of the education sector, less able children are often left behind so that the teacher can concentrate on those students who are likely to yield more positive results during coursework and examinations. Until teachers are relieved of the need to constantly manage such internal conflicts and the need to wear two hats (Bryce and Humes, 2003:5) Scotland will find it difficult to construct a knowledge economy that has a sound basis in the secondary school setup.
In terms of the curriculum itself, there are also going to be inevitable changes to the study of design and technology in the future. While many of the future developments of the curriculum exist solely within the realms of conjecture, certain changes are already being discussed at a decision making level and are likely to be fast tracked into the core of the design and technology curriculum. There will, for instance, doubtlessly be an increasing convergence with media for the purpose of communication in the digital age, which can also serve the purpose of communicating across cultures and national boundaries (MacDonald, 1997:4754). In addition, environmentalism is bound to become an essential part of the design and technology curriculum as the part played by technological innovation in the destruction of the planet's ecosystems becomes an increasingly important point to disseminate to young, wouldbe Scottish designers. The issue comes under the broad heading of ‘sustainable development' and the curriculum will be responsible for ensuring that only products that can ensure sustainable development are used in the design and technology curriculum (Scott and Gough, 2003). In this way, design and technology can finally begin to break free from the rigid conceptual confines that have hitherto prevented the subject becoming a statutory topic in Scotland and elsewhere in the United Kingdom in order to make a real difference to one of the most pressing moral issues of the contemporary era.


References
Brown, A., McCrone, D. and Patterson, L. (1998) Politics and Society in Scotland: Second Edition London: Palgrave Macmillan
Bryce, T. and Humes, W. M. (2003) Introduction and Overview, in, Bryce, T. and Humes, W.M. (Eds.) Scottish Education: PostDevolution: Second Edition Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press
Burbules, N.C.


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