Vulindlela*: forging new paths

A HYBRID CONFERENCE HOSTED BY STADIO - Centurion Campus
21 & 22 September 2023

• Authors - please submit your final papers to conference@defsa.org.za
• Include names and institutions of all authors
• Don't forget to include acknowledgements to sponsors and funders

The Design education community is moving forward socially and environmentally, seeking new pathways in a southern African context. DEFSA conferences celebrate new and emerging research by educational practitioners within higher education design contexts in South Africa. The 17th DEFSA conference aims to reflect on current design education practices that foreground new and relevant research to advance the development and recognition of design education within the southern African context.

* For your interest... “Vulindlela” is a “Xhosa” word meaning “make way”

THEME

The conference aims to celebrate the broad conceptual theme of moving forward by exploring new pathways open to interpretation and guided through various subthemes. By foregrounding new relevant design education research, we seek to contribute towards discourse and research within a South African context. Furthermore, the conference aims to offer a space to explore student perspectives regarding design education practices within the classroom, curriculum, and broader learning contexts.

Sub-themes for the conference include:

DOING: New pathways in design education

Doing design changed significantly over the decade, and design educators are preparing students for a world which few educators have experience of. Papers consider design education and change factors, such as technology (e.g. metaverse, 4IR, 5IR, AI, and VR) economic and business factors; and user needs and design enterprise factors.

LEARNING: New approaches to design education

Design teaching and learning happen in a fast-changing environment that challenges the way design is taught and curricula are developed. Papers critically explore and reflect on these challenges and opportunities, such as the learning experiences of design students, options of hybrid teaching, technology in design education, assessment practices, student success, and possible alternative perspectives.

MAKING: Practice-based/led or design-led research

Design is ideally positioned to harness the potential of “making” as part of research. Papers demonstrate and investigate how design making becomes part of knowledge creation in research and postgraduate studies, as well as the nature of this research and practice, challenges, and the potential of such approaches. In this theme, we welcome creative work and artefacts as submissions that demonstrate innovative ways of doing design.

CONNECTING: Co-design, co-research and engaging with communities

Design, design education and design research take place in a networked environment with various participants and stakeholders such as industry, communities, and end-users. How can design educators prepare students for these connections? Are we building pathways for co-research and cross-border or global collaboration to move Afrikan design scholarship and practice forward?

CARING: Inclusivity and design for good

Topics in this theme extend the concepts of human-centred design to that of humanity and life-centred design. The topics consider educating designers for the planet and all people. Papers critically explore and develop knowledge in design education in areas such as service learning, community partnerships, design activism, and design for the Sustainable Development Goals, etc.

CONFERENCE FEE

Free for paid-up DEFSA members and R500 for non-DEFSA members. A fee will be charged per peer-reviewed, accepted paper, to cover the production costs of the proceedings.