Contact: see the editors, below
Deadline for submission of abstracts: 15 Aug 2021 |
| From Unsplash |
Editors
Miikka J. Lehtonen, D.Sc.(Econ.), B.Soc.Sc.Specially Appointed Associate Professor
Rikkyo University College of Business
miikka@rikkyo.ac.jp
Tomi Kauppinen, Ph.D., Doc., PD, M.Sc.
Head, Aalto Online Learning
Aalto University
tomi.kauppinen@aalto.fi
Laura Sivula, MA (Hons)
Program Director
Aalto University School of Business
laura.sivula@aalto.fi
Teaching is a performative act. And it is that aspect of our work that offers the space for change, invention, spontaneous shifts, that can serve as a catalyst drawing out the unique elements in each classroom. To embrace the performative aspect of teaching, we are compelled to engage “audiences,” to consider issues of reciprocity. Teachers are not performers in the traditional sense of the word in that our work is not meant to be a spectacle. Yet it is meant to serve as a catalyst that calls everyone to become more and more engaged, to become active participants in learning.
For educational institutions, the beginning of the 21st century has marked a significant increase in calls to transform both teaching and research to better answer the grand challenges contemporary societies are facing: Australian bush fires, Amazon deforestation, radically changing job market due to automatisation, failures of the market-driven economy, and platformization and the new precariat, to name but few examples. Within this context, design education has been gaining currency across different disciplines as one of the potential drivers transforming teaching and learning in educational institutions. In other words, design’s focus on material inquiry, iterative problem-solving, and human-centered approach have been touted as essential skills for students to master. Yet by doing so we are importing only a fraction of design’s signature pedagogies in a drive-by fashion to make the physical classroom more engaging. Thus, what are we importing when we import design to other disciplines? And how does this feed back into our understanding of design education?
Whilst recognizing the potential design education has in transforming teaching and learning across disciplines, the current Covid-19 pandemic has somewhat exacerbated the situation by forcing educational institutions to rapidly transform their courses into remote learning experiences. In essence, the pandemic has highlighted a certain cherry-picking approach to design education by seemingly ignoring the long-standing experience in design education to harness virtual environments. Although technology holds great potential in transforming learning and teaching, we now know a much deeper and nuanced understanding of design education is required if we are to transform educational institutions in a holistic manner, not only in areas in which we are comfortable.
Thus, while there is a considerable body of research arguing for design’s positive impact in the classroom, this edited book argues that design's impact goes beyond the classroom and the here-now. Creativity, communication, collaboration, empathy, critical thinking, and spatial thinking are needed to both create sustainable futures and for offering meaningful services and products in these futures. Learning, as well as an attitude and capabilities for lifelong learning, are pivotal in achieving desirable futures.
More specifically, and in line with arguments for design’s role as a social and environmental catalyst, this book brings together contemporary research on design education in and outside the design domain by illustrating how higher education institutions could be transformed to better respond to contemporary challenges related to environmental issues, social inequality, responsible business, and policy-making. As such, we wish to generate conversation between design and other disciplines since to date, research and pedagogical efforts have been predominantly focusing on separate disciplinary domains, thus failing to answer what has become a wicked problem.
To bridge disciplinary silos, this edited volume will bring together empirical, conceptual, and theoretical contributions aiming at paving the way for learning that is based on real-life projects, engagement with the surrounding society, and learning through making and doing. More specifically, drawing on Shulman’s (2005) dimensions of signature pedagogies (surface, deep, and implicit structures) this edited volume will focus on the following topics and themes:
- Educational leadership and disruptive practices for transforming higher education
- Measuring and defining quality and efficiency in design-driven interventions
- Politics of design in higher education
- Institutional enablers and barriers for teaching design in novel contexts
- Design and technology-mediated teaching and transformative learning
- Design as a transdisciplinary catalyst
- Virtual design studio across disciplines
- Developing students’ and teachers’ transformative capacities
- Developing students’ capacities through real-life projects with external stakeholders
- Future skills and the future of work
- Design education’s signature pedagogies and design studio’s main characteristics – what is being imported and for what purposes
If everything goes as planned, the book will be published in June 2022. Furthermore, while the final output will be in a traditional book format, we are also hoping to develop tangential initiatives (e.g. seminars focusing on potential contributions, writing workshops, dialogue and networking between contributors - also open to ideas and suggestions).
Interested scholars and practitioners should send their abstract (max. 500 words, excl. references) and a short bio (max. 75 words) to the editors by 15 August 2021. Invitation to contribute will be made by 17 September 2021, and the deadline for submitting the final version of the manuscript is 31 January 2022.
Please get in touch with any of us from the editorial team should you have any questions or if you would like to discuss your contribution ideas.
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