Goldsmiths - University of London

The Team

Professor Richard Kimbell

Richard Kimbell was the first professor of Technology Education in London University.  He has taught technology in schools and been course director for undergraduate and postgraduate courses of teacher education. In 1990, he founded the Technology Education Research Unit (TERU) at Goldsmiths, as the base from which to manage his expanding research portfolio.  In the subsequent period, research sponsors include research councils (e.g. ESRC, NSF [USA]), industry (e.g. LEGO, BP), government departments (e.g. DfES, DfID), as well as professional and charitable organisations (e.g. Engineering Council, Royal Society of Arts, Design Museum).

He has published widely in the field including three single-authored books, several books in which he edited contributions, as well as reports commissioned by UK Government Departments, the Congress of the United States, UNESCO and NATO. He has written and presented television programmes and regularly lectures internationally. He is a consultant to the National Academy of Engineering and the National Science Foundation in the USA, and is a Visiting Professor at the University of Stockholm.


Tony Wheeler

Independent designer, publisher, researcher, founder member of Creating Spaces and co-founder of TAG Learning. Tony is currently working at Goldsmiths exploring innovative approaches to assessing creativity.

He has planned and taught design related courses at most stages of education, from primary through to post graduate level, and has lectured internationally and examined at advanced and graduate level. While creative director at TAG Learning Tony designed and published many software titles, teacher guides and helped to established four national web communities.

Tony has produced teaching packs for the V&A, developed multimedia materials for the BBC, published learning resources for English Heritage and continues to work closely with the visual arts education team at Arts Council England.



Professor Kay Stables


Kay started her career in London as a textiles teacher, moving to Goldsmiths in 1986 as a researcher on a major government funded research project on assessment of capability in design and technology (the APU project).   Since this first project she has directed and contributed to a broad range of research projects in the area of design and technology education including primary and secondary age learners, both in the UK and overseas.  With Professor Richard Kimbell, she has authored a retrospective analysis of this 20 years of research in TERU.

She takes a keen interest in the development of technology education across the globe and is an editorial board member of two key journals in the field: the USA based Journal of Technology Education and UK based Design and Technology Education: An International Journal.  She has been a visiting scholar at a number of overseas institutions in Canada, USA, Australia and New Zealand.

Kay was Acting Warden of Goldsmiths (2004 - 2005) and prior to this she was Senior Pro-Warden and Pro-Warden Students (2000 - 2004) and is the current Head of the Department of Design.