Gunnar and list members,
On 9/19/13 8:31 AM, "Gunnar Swanson" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>From an overall policy standpoint, I think that we need to stop fighting
>the vocationalization of education and instead adapt it to broad
>educational goals. Design could have a couple of important roles in that
>change.
Gunnar is spot on when he makes reference to the vocationlization of
education. We continue to exist in academic silos at many universities,
colleges and schools. As a case in point, I was in a conversation not that
long ago with a partner of a leading architectural firm who had just hired
two of our recent graduates one from architecture and the other from
interior design. He was telling me of his surprise that despite spending
four years in the same school and in the same building these two recent
graduates had met for the first time in his office.
Moving beyond the silo effect within an academic unit, the Provost of our
university once asked our Dean why we didn't teach design to the
university? Like most other academic disciplines, or so it seemed,
architecture and design preferred to teach its own students at the
exclusion of the greater university population. In my opinion, this has to
do, at least in part, with the nature of teaching architecture and design
as well as the funding model of the university. But it also has to do with
the very natural concept of comfort zones. It's so much more rewarding to
teach people who are like us. Francois touches upon that with the example
he shared about design students taking courses in other academic units. I
agree with him: as long as the instructor of such a course keeps to the
disciplinary script for the course, students from other disciplines will
not derive the full benefit.
That said, I have made it my personal mission to teach design to
non-designers, and do so by way of an entry level course called Design
Awareness. It is available to any undergraduate student at ASU as an
elective. Annually, anywhere from 600 to 800 students enroll in the
course, which is offered both in-class and online. I have students from a
range of disciplines business, engineering, education, psychology,
healthcare, etc. None of these students wants to become a designer per se.
That is not their intention when they enroll. What they want is to have a
better understanding of design as they pursue their career plans in
business, engineering, education, psychology, healthcare, etc.
Jacques Giard PhD
Professor of Design
The Design School
Arizona State University
480.965.1373
http://jrgiard.macmate.me/jrgiard/Welcome.htmlGo Green! Please do not
print this e-mail unless it is completely necessary.
>
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