Abstract
Although educational institutions are designed to expand knowledge and encourage growth, they also miss opportunities for self-reflection. It is in educational spaces where students begin to self-identify with race, class, gender, and cultural heritage. However, design-based research courses rarely discuss the importance of self-discovery and reflection. Drawing inspiration from bell hooks’ Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope, a 500-level graduate studio course was designed to address this gap. Students were challenged to step away from traditional design frameworks and allow experiences, self-expression and counter-narratives to lead the making. Thinking through making—a self-reflective making approach to design-based research—attempts to generate dialogue around identity, race, class, and cultural heritage to meet the increasingly complex and ever-evolving design challenges in the classroom, and the world. The study offers a reflection of, approaches to, and insights to design-based research. This paper 1). Contextualizes the course through a CRT and LatCrit lens, 2). Shares details of the assignments through three student use cases: “Unequal Power Relations in Climate Change Mitigation: A Simulation on the Global Carbon Market”, “Exploring Alternatives for Neurodiverse Connections Among Children”, and “Visual Media, Black Girlhood, and Sexual Social Scripts”; and 3). Ends with a reflection on how design educators might better prepare students for the complexities of the design industry.
Presenters
Angelica SibrianAssistant Professor, Art, Design, Art History, California State University at Fresno, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Thinking Through Making, Self-Reflection, Counter-Narratives, Design-based Research, Design Practices
