Introduction
‘Everything is a project, from planning to go on a picnic to designing and building the space shuttle.’. (Portz, 2014, p. 19
This chapter introduces the concept of project management through a community project approach (CPA). Several examples are provided to show a range of products that have been designed and produced for ‘clients’ in local communities. The advantages of incorporating a CPA as part of a balanced technologies curriculum are discussed and the benefits are highlighted. This is in keeping with the Australian Curriculum – Technologies which states that a project represents a:
… set of activities undertaken by students to address specified content, involving understanding the nature of a problem, situation or need; creating, designing and producing a solution to the project task and documenting the process. Project work has a benefit, purpose and use; a user or audience who can provide feedback on the success of the solution; limitations to work within; and a real-world technologies context influenced by social, ethical and environmental issues. Project management criteria are used to judge a project's success.(ACARA, 2015, p. 32)
Historically, a project approach became popular in the United States after being promoted by Dewey and Kilpatrick (Katz and Chard, 2000), and in children's work in England in the 1920s (Isaac, 1996). Project work was central in the ‘integrated day’ or ‘integrated curriculum’ in Britain (Plowden Committee Report, 1967) and also in the Bank Street curriculum in New York (Zimilies, 1987).
In a Canadian high school, a CPA proved to be motivating for Year 10 students (Hill and Smith, 1996). As a result, Hill and Smith promoted a CPA in the context of technologies education for secondary preservice teachers. Consequently, Jane (2003) introduced a CPA in primary technology education units for teachers in Australia, where it became a rewarding approach for third-year preservice students. Thus, it can be seen that CPA has a long history and has been shown to mirror how specialist professions in technologies work. As such, CPA supports the technologies contexts and specialisations of technologies (see Figure 8.1).
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