How have these issues been tackled before now?

"Thus in our society there is no social esteem attached to working in industry, even though the products and services of industry are the life blood of society. Without exception we are all users and consumers of technology, and furthermore we are totally dependent on technology. Most critically, since our society is 'technically illiterate' - Sharon (1989:55), our dependency on technology and industry is just not understood. But it is significant that little social stigma attaches to being 'technologically illiterate', and therefore 'only partially educated' - Penfold (1988:21). From this state of being only partially educated, it maybe argued that sustaining ourselves as a society has never been a matter of high priority within the culture of our opinion leaders."

From thesis page 233:

"When a subject is valued neither culturally nor educationally, its place in society cannot be adequately examined, defined or understood, at a level of acceptance likely to be influential. The enormity of our cultural and value judgment problems was borne out by the introduction of technology as a National Curriculum subject in 1988 rather than say in 1888, or earlier. Given our dependency on tools and technologies, both as individuals and as a society, this can only be described as an absolute disaster. We have not been taught to value our tool-culture, and as a consequence we can't even appreciate the enormity of the disaster."
They haven't! Essentially, education policy is culturally driven. Policy-makers and educationalists have long experienced a conflict between educational ideals and the low intellectual esteem they attribute to "working with one's hands". These issues were never perceived by the influential critical mass, so they have never been faced, and the reason is because of longstanding cultural disdain associated with technological illiteracy. Some extracts from the thesis will serve to illustrate the point starting with a quote from page 141:

"When prominent opinion leaders apply value judgements, they disclose their cultural preferences, and they establish standards for others to follow. When defining the direction to be taken by education, these opinion leaders employ terminology that provides 'statutory sanction' for disparagement. Such values have cascaded through the sub-culture of education and on into society, and the lessons have been learnt all too well, as …" shown in Chapter 8 - The perception of technology.

 Meanwhile attempts to change the curriculum continue. The Department for Education and Employment have published All our futures:Creativity, Culture & Education, [search www.dfes.gov.uk/index.htm] in which the following was stated:

"We live in a fast moving world. … Many businesses are paying for courses to promote creative abilities, to teach the skills and attitudes that are now essential for economic success but which our education system is not designed to promote - DfEE (1999:14)."

"In the absence of an educational system that provided an holistic approach to sustaining ourselves as a society, our educational system has fallen back on the value judgements associated with a philosophical and cultural failure to understand the purpose of technology and industry at the highest levels in our society. Worse, this failure to understand included a determination to associate industry and technical education with the 'lower orders', with the 'industrial classes' for whom there was no intellectual challenge."

Dr Stan Owers February 2003

Download the Thesis and its appendices