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design education in the age of transformation
we are in an age of transformation. we have outgrown the age of industrialisation which emphasised materialistic values and promoted liberties to build, consume and to produce, regardless, at what or whose expense. design can transition us into a new paradigm. what we require is a new design education.
The age of transformation introduces new values and new relationships with built environments, goods and services. Design obtains a new relevance in ensuring our material wellbeing, whether the process of design results in advanced technologies, skilfully hand-crafted meaningful products, systematic access to products, or in emotional wellbeing.
We propose that design education in the age of transformation is built on the following principles:
Trans-disciplinary / Cross-cultural / Adaptive / Co-generative / Futures-literate
- Transdisciplinary
Designers are trained to transform ideas into useful propositions. The core competence is to deliver positive relationships with functional and asthetic artefacts that assist our life. As climate change, environmental degradation and social inequality are multilayered large scale problems involving multiple disperse disciplines, transdisciplinary approach enhances design competencies to solving these problems. Design studies must engage disciplines which inform and define contemporary design contexts. These are, but may not be limited to: environmental studies, economics, philosophy of design and of technology, ethics, geopolitical studies, life sciences.
- Cross-cultural co-lab
Cross-cultural communication (including cultures formed by occupational training) is imperative for positive collaboration dynamics and in co-creation of new artefacts and systems. An effective design learning environment resembles a workplace, where colleagues trained in multiple disciplines and with multiple backgrounds work together. By learning from various disciplines, multilayered complex problems are resolved more efficiently and with longer lasting positive impacts. Therefore, programmes training designers in the age of transformation should admit students with various skills sets and interests.
- Adaptive theme-based
To keep a pace with rapidly changing complex conditions of the world, influenced by climate change, geopolitical shifts, policies, and not least, changing human values; design studies should be adaptive and engage knowledge fields with the highest potential to address contemporary and relevant issues. For instance, under a theme “vibrant and sustainable societies”, design students may learn about wellbeing, psychology, anthropology, as well as eco-agriculture and economics. The knowledge fields inform the potential of design solution. The adaptive theme-based curricula is an effective way of learning how to address relevant issues. Each year’s study programme may adapt emerging themes and subsequent knowledge fields of the time.
- Co-generation of knowledge
While education is an individual journey of self-development, design students undergo group-work based research and development projects, working in close collaborations with various experts in the selected knowledge fields according to the adaptive theme-based curriculum. The learning approach is “co-generation of knowledge”, where the students and the teacher-experts alike, intend to establish base-line knowledge, and to co-develop new methods of thought and new solutions pertaining to the fields. The learning is thus a process engaging the students and the experts alike, mutually co-learning as a group and benefiting each-other.
- Futures-literacy
Design is entangled with future – future of the planet and us. Increasingly, design principles are being integrated into foresight methodologies and vice versa, co-creating a more robust approach to creating a desirable future for the planet and humankind. Accordingly, as of 2021, ADES in collaboration with The Futures Lab, Inc will introduce “futures literacy” in design education as the new principle advancing design in the age of transformation.
The above 5 education principles are developed and practiced in ADES – Institute of Advanced Design Studies, non-profit.
Feedback culture / Reflective / Critical– systemic thinking / ecologically literate
- Feedback culture
Feedback is crucial for self-development and improvement of learning and practice. Only when we know how our work is perceived by others can we may make conscious changes. Teachers provide feedback to students, and students provide feedback to teachers. This feedback is used to adapt the learning experience. The seminar transforms into a shared design experience, in which responsibilities are shared among all attendees. We learn to communicate with clarity and consideration, while listening carefully with the intent to understand. Giving and receiving feedback also needs to be learned, also that there are different kinds of feedback, such as formative feedback, feed-forward and summative feedback. When learning is the students job, what is the job of the teacher?
- Reflective practice
Alongside feedback of importance is reflection. We do not learn through experience and feedback automatically, we have to reflect. Reflection is essential for deeper learning and improvement of practice. There are different ways of reflection that also have to be learned. Making conscious use of reflection may lead to new ways of reflecting—and better learning. Different methods of reflection should be made explicit, practiced and consciously used. Among those methods are writing going for a walk with a conversation partner, reflecting together as a group and reflecting in our journals or in an email. Additionally we reflect about our different ways of reflecting which permits students to develop their own ways of reflecting in other contexts and find out what works for them. And reflecting together establishes familiarity and trust.
- Critical/systemic thinking
Critical thinking is related to critical consciousness which proposes that people discover and record challenges in their communities and debate ideas about how to address them. Such critical consciousness is a foundation for democratic participation. This problem-based approach reminds us of a design studio where learning takes place through active problem solving and critical reflection. We link critical thinking to systems thinking, leading students to investigate the complexity hidden behind simple products and designs. We gain insight into carbon footprints, the miles that materials and products travel across our globalised world, into energy, labour conditions and resources. Innocuous household items become part of larger networks and relationships. We develop methods to map these, and thus gain a better understanding of their connectedness and complexity. Systems thinking enables us to discover the hidden complexity of our world, distinguish interdepencies and map leverage points.
- Sustainability / ecological literacy
A commitment to sustainability is very much linked to systems thinking. Only when we reveal the hidden complexity of our designs we can aim at making them more sustainable. This should become a school wide project and commitment. Engrained into our practice, life and actions. For this we also need to understand ecosystems and how they work. This will also help us to better understand the bigger picture around our school knowledge, and how it is actually linked and related to our own ecosystem, our lives and our design practice.
perMA Dessau student initiative. perMA Instagram.
The above 4 education principles are developed and practiced in the Dessau model of transformative design education, University of Anhalt, Department of Design.
