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Taking design seriously in initial teacher education
Conference presentation

Taking design seriously in initial teacher education

Nick Kelly and Leighann Ness Wilson
2026 ATEA Conference (Gold Coast, Queensland, 01/07/2026–03/07/2026)
03/07/2026

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Abstract

Design is present in teacher education for all teachers, not just design teachers. Some preservice teachers learn about design in workshops and others learn about teaching for the general capability of ‘critical and creative thinking’. Yet too often teachers complete their initial teacher education with only a vague notion of the relationship between their day-to-day work of being a teacher and themselves as an expert designer. This talk makes three key contributions by: 1) Distinguishing transferable design capabilities (which have much in common with 21st Century Skills or Future Skills) from specialist design capabilities (those needed by professional designers within a domain). We make the case that these transferable capabilities should be (but too often are not) developed by all teachers within ITE for the benefit of students and teachers alike. 2) Providing clear language for talking about what it means for teachers to develop transferable design capabilities and drawing on the design science literature to show how they might be developed. 3) Recognising the importance of teachers self-identifying as expert designers of learning experiences. We draw upon the literature to support this point and hypothesise ways in which such recognition might aid teachers in unexpected ways, from activity-centred learning design to improved wellbeing. We discuss the systemic changes that are needed for design to be taken seriously in initial teacher education. This involves an ongoing movement to shift the perception of design within education as a whole, as well as specific changes to how design is taught to preservice teachers.

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