Perspectives on Learning in Design & Technology Education : Story-making in Designing and learning

As Jerome Bruner (1996, p.147) said, ʻwe live in a sea of stories, and like the fish who (...) will be the last to discover water, we have our own difficulty grasping what it is like to swim in storiesʼ. It is children that discover ʻthe waterʼ first, as through their play, they ʻswimʼ both spontaneously and intentionally in a fictional world. Can we therefore learn from childrenʼs ability to create fictional scenarios, and use story-making as a concept stimulus for the design process? At the same time, can we give voice to children as designers and through that an understanding that their designs have the power to shape society? My research investigates the possibility of translating the design process into a learning experience, using design outcomes as evidence of this.