Technicians’ support: a crucial dimension for implementing creative change in D&T classrooms.

In the context of an ongoing research and intervention project ‘Subject Leadership in Creativity in Design and Technology’ funded by the Gatsby Foundation certain factors were identified as either supportive or hindering to the realisation of the main aim of the project which is introducing changes in teaching practices that help develop students’ creativity. To better understand these factors, participating teachers were interviewed regularly to discuss the progress made in their schools. In these interviews, teachers indicate the importance of the support of the technician in the D&T department and highlight the impact of this support on teachers’ adoption of the teaching practices which the project recommends for enhancing the possibility of students engaging in creative designs for the subject projects. It became clear that technicians needed to redefine their roles to be supportive to teachers during the process of change, yet this would only take place if technicians were involved in the change process from its outset. If these two conditions were met, the result was that technicians supported and facilitated students’ creativity. Hence, the paper highlights the importance of engaging the technician from the outset of change to ensure his/her support to the teachers and outlines possible ways for developing this kind of engagement.