Developing economic understanding through design & technology

This paper specifically asks what Design & Technology can contribute to the development of pupils' economic understanding. Most interpretations of economic understanding have placed it within a business and industry context. We acknowledge this but will argue that such a narrow interpretation which ignores the other contexts will not provide opportunities for economic understanding to develop on a broarder front. By posing a number ofquestions we will suggest that we should look again at the relationship between Design & Technology and economic understanding. We suggest that this relationship is based upon the values and attitudes which teachers should seek to develop. Questions to be considered include: What is economic understanding? What are appropriate contexts for developing economic understanding through Design & Technology? What level of economic understanding should pupils attain, and how can that be described? The authors wish to share their current concerns which are themselves the subject of their own research.