An unbroken chain: linking our past and future

It is both an honour and privilege to have been asked to take over as the Editor of the relaunched Design and Technology Education: An International Journal. The contributions of the two previous Editors have been immense. Professor John Eggleston was the driving force behind the founding of the Journal as Studies in Education and Craft in 1967 (and its evolution into Studies in Design Education, Craft and Technology in 1978 and Design and Technology Teaching: a journal of new approaches in 1989). Throughout his time as Editor during the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, the Journal was at the centre of the debates that shaped the development of design and technology as a school subject. In 1996 Professor Richard Kimbell took over as Editor and it was renamed the The Journal of Design and Technology Education. At the time of this handover of the reins, John Eggleston wrote as follows: The new feature will be a regular selection of the growing body of new research that is now available for the enlightenment of practitioners in the field – much of it being generated by practitioners themselves. (1995:3