In this article an analysis is made of the responses of 95 technology education teachers, 14 technology education lecturers and 25 design practitioners to questionnaires regarding the teaching and the application of the design process. The main purpose of the questionnaires is to determine whether there are any trends regarding the strategies and methods that are used to teach and apply the design process. From the curriculum documents for public schools in South Africa it is clear that the design process is considered to be an important aspect in a wide variety of subjects. In particular design is considered to be the backbone learning outcome of the Technology Learning Area. This prominence given to the design process in the South African school curriculum prompted this research project. A questionnaire was structured to accommodate individual teachers and lecturers who are teaching the design process according to the Technology section of the national curriculum statement of the South African Department of Basic Education. A separate questionnaire was structured to accommodate individual design practitioners. Regarding teaching the design process, teachers tend to closely follow the prescriptions of the school curriculum, lecturers tend to allow room for different interpretations and design practitioners tend to accommodate a range of approaches when applying the design process. Although the results revealed by the questionnaires are a reflection of the teaching practices of a limited group in a particular setting some knowledge transfer to similar situations should be possible.