Is design and technology education really real?

What follows is a philosophical argument that will attempt to explore the notion of school based design and technology as vocational education. This is, for some reason, commonly attributed to its qualities which are regarded as different from other types of education – normally referred to as ‘academic education’. I am mindful that this quest is full of dangers and pitfalls and I expect, as a result, to be challenged in my thoughts, and rightly so for is this not what a conference sets out to accomplish? In my arguments I will give an interpretation that seeks to “correlate things which often are not on the surface connected” (Lovejoy, 2001: 21). Things like philosophy and its necessary, but often neglected relationship, with design and technology serves as an example which, as in Plato’s allegory of the cave can help liberate the learner from the false, pre-determined images presented in the shadowy depths of the cave, and lead her up into the sunlight, thereby revealing a reality which is no longer constructed for her, but rather, by her.