A position paper based on philosophical issues around the design disciplines

The Education White Paper (SA, 1997) identifies that the knowledge economy is dependent on knowledge workers that can contribute to the economical development of the country. The White Paper further motivates that it is the role of higher education to provide education and training to develop the skills and innovations that are necessary for national economical development and successful participation in the world economy.

Full Title: A short story: towards developing a Personal and Professional Development (PPD) curriculum for first-year design students

Whilst the world is indeed in flux, the purpose of design – to address human needs – remains constant. The concept ‘Human needs’ is multifaceted, and needs clarification, This paper is concerned with the relationship between ‘human needs’ and design education.

Firstly, to be a good designer is to be an aware designer. Awareness improves the end product and feeds the process of concept generation. But awareness also engenders positive outcomes beyond the scope of objects. Design informed by awareness enriches the user, as well as the designer and maker.

Note: A full reviewed paper was not submitted after the conference.

The last 15-20 years has seen an explosion in design awareness worldwide, with a concomitant restructuring of design education curricula. Increasingly, national innovation strategies are beginning to integrate design, art, social sciences and the humanities into their programmes, and there is a corresponding developing integration of the creative and social disciplines in the curricula of science and technology.

Assessment in education is often seen as only the grading or final evaluation of a completed task performed by the student. Assessment and feedback opportunities can easily be overlooked as design and process are inseparable. How can it be monitored other than with assessment? This paper aims to outline the importance of integration between assessment and the design process, as assessment has various possibilities and varieties, just as the design process consists of a complex sequence of investigations.

As South Africans, we have often taken a somewhat perverse pride in how complex our society is. It is with a macabre delight that we talk about our population of approximately 43 million people being made up of about 8 different cultural groups speaking 11 official languages and practicing many different religions. We have 1st and 3rd world infrastructures, incredibly diverse literacy levels and ethnic affiliations and we are in the process of re-inventing ourselves as a nation and a new democracy. How complex, how colourful, how diverse we pride ourselves in being.

On Monday, June 5 2006, on the front page of the Business Report, it was stated that, “Schools fail to teach the basics, MPs hear”. The article proclaimed that young people were leaving school without having reading or numeracy skills, and because of that businesses were often unable to train young recruits. Each year, fewer than half of the million children who started at grade 1 will register for grade 12. Even those who leave after grade 12 do not have the basic skills to seek work (Hamlyn, 2006: 1).

Some of those school leavers may become our students.

This paper deals, with the need for transformation of the design profession and industry as a consequence of a governmental initiative. The demographics, with respect to the design industry do not reflect the wider South African society. These challenges also face the Universities of Technology in respect of student demographics and profile.

By responding to issues such as Accessibility, Disability, Inclusive Education, and Universal Design, Design Education is uniquely placed to positively impact upon the greater community. This paper discusses the emerging subject of Universal Design and its potential contribution towards greater inclusiveness in education (and by extension professional practice) in particular, and in society in general. Though Universal Design is relevant to disciplines such as Urban & Regional Planning, Architecture, Interior Design, and Graphics/Information Design, the focus will be on its applications in the context of Industrial/Product Design.

This paper will look at the conceptual understandings of design education in South Africa with reference to the Fenwick monogram (2001). Learning, according to Fenwick, is categorised into five perspectives: constructivist, critical cultural, psychoanalytic, situative, and enactivist.

Design seminars and symposia attempting to address the world’s manifold problems are suddenly commonplace. Although it is becoming clear that the UN Millennium Development goals are unattained and currently unachievable for some parts of the world, especially Africa, these same goals loom large on the agendas of the ERA, ICOGRADA, ICSID, the AIGA, the Aspen Summit, and other design conferences in the industrialized west.

This paper proposes design as the guiding pedagogical metaphor for education in the 21st century. Educational reform literature is preoccupied with notions of indeterminacy in relation to learning because of major social changes that have occurred over the last two decades. Globalization, pluriculturalism, informalisation, consumerism, the rise of the network or information/knowledge based society have increasingly become defining markers of these changes.

I believe we are living in a time of opportunity. Democratically established and constitutionally sound, South Africans have created a platform for opportunity on an unprecedented scale. Within this framework South African designers are beginning to show their mettle.

Over the last few years we have seen some exciting work from both established and emerging designers in a variety of disciplines from fashion to product design. We have always been inventive creatures. We are continually solving problems and developing new technologies at an astounding rate. We are forward looking beings set on breaking new frontiers. We have the ability to predict many of our future needs.

South Africa has one of the most forward thinking Constitutions in the world. Few countries have been able to define and legislate for equality in such an all-encompassing way. It is a challenge for design educators who must be aware of the likely future implications for design students, and who need to question their own views and current practice.

Designing for Disability has long been a specialism for a minority group. However, international trends are redefining it as a mainstream, user-lead concept. There is great potential for South African designers to embrace the meaning of equality for disabled people within the Constitution and use it to guide design practice.

This paper will examine:

When new media and interactive design were added to the traditional graphic design curriculum at the University of Potchefstroom this year, I became keenly aware of the current complexties in the industry and the difficulties involved in teaching students a wide range of specialized skills with limited funds, limited expertise and in limited time. I certainly sensed what Lorianne Justice termed the ‘big squeeze’ when she refered to the ever expanding knowledge base that needs to be accommodated in limited time in current design curriculums (Justice 2000: 49).

The University of Botswana is proposing to introduce an undergraduate degree program in Industrial Design. It is inevitable that a new program must have local relevance while not loosing touch with the global realities. This paper discusses the need for the course, the proposed program structure and its rationale within Botswana’s social, economic and industrial setting. 

The submission discusses global factors that were considered in designing the program. It also highlights the implementation plan in terms of student enrolment and their exits profile, staff, resources both existing and projected, and industry collaboration.

Many corporate firms, although operating within this age of information and the knowledge economy, still rely on the skill and expertise of individuals to the extent that the ‘organisational memory’ can be severely weakened when that individual’s store of knowledge (skill, know-how, individual memory of corporate behaviour) ceases to function as an input. This highlights a parallel lack of system in organising collective and strategic knowledge - to collate and retain the most valuable and necessary units of knowledge. These circumstances will be compared to the general technikon situation, in which a related, academic, lack of knowledge management is all too evident.