Abstract
Reforming tertiary design education that is committed to empowering students to develop agency, knowledge, and skills for timely and impactful design responses to sustainability crises demands a substantial rethinking of the curriculum. This is no easy task. Our paper describes a reconstructivist and pluriversal approach to curriculum reform we are testing in the School of Art and Design, UNSW, Sydney. The paper reports on how our school is focusing on and problematizing the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) in response to the contradictory findings of a curriculum audit of the Bachelor of Design. We compared the frequency of references to the SDGs in course outlines to the SDGs underpinning Design Honours project descriptions over a five-year period. To our surprise despite the marked absence of references to the SDGs in course outlines, student descriptions of their Honours projects demonstrated sound understandings of the SDGs. To contextualize our curriculum revisions we provide an overview of current shifts in Australian design education and outline plans for initiatives that we anticipate will contribute to turning the rhetoric of SDGs into meaningful actions that respond to the call for changes that contribute to just and equitable societies for all people and the planet.
Presenters
Emma MillsLecturer, School of Art and Design, Faculty of Arts, Design & Architecture, University of New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory, Australia Katherine Moline
Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, School of Art and Design, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Design, Education, University, Curriculum, Sustainability, Pluriverse
