Art 6 1-2 4 1-2
Art 6 1-2 4 1-2
Art 6 1-2 4 1-2
EDITORIAL
NICKY NEDERGAARD
Editor-in-Chief
As reflected by the content of this issue this broad and pressing agenda
may very well start by foregrounding new insights into how design educa-
tors may connect more strongly their developments of pedagogical practices
to knowledge on the needs and desires for design-based competencies and
sensibilities in the design (services) labour markets. With this issue’s first three
articles – presented briefly in the below – such very issues related to develop-
ments in practices of design-based education, learning and pedagogy are dealt
with from diverse perspectives and research disciplines. In addition, this issue
presents ‘commentaries’ as a new type of format within the journal. Linked
to the article by Bang and Agger Eriksen – concerned with the knowledge-
generating value of design research experiments – we introduce the commen-
tary-format with reflections on past and current developments of the design
experiment in research through (participatory) design. This commentary is
authored by professor Thomas Binder. Lastly, we touch upon the potential of
co-design practices in eliciting and developing new conceptions of value in
the context of creative industry micro-businesses.
The first article, ‘Comparing employability priorities of emerging and expe-
rienced interior designers’ by Amy Huber and Lisa Waxman from Florida State
University, discusses the employability of emerging interior designers in a US
context. The article examines alignments and discrepancies between emerg-
ing (early career) interior designers’ view on competencies of importance
to their employability in relation to the priorities of hiring design managers
in the interior design labour market. Based on analyses of survey data from
emerging designers, compared to extant findings on the hiring priorities of
design managers, the results presented support the imperative of cultivating
so-called ‘soft skills’ with designers as a central feature of their labour market
value proposition. Analytical findings are concludingly discussed with impli-
cations for emerging designers as well as design educators.
The second article, ‘Investigating design-based learning ecologies’,
is written by Bruce Snaddon (Cape Peninsula University of Technology)
and colleagues (Andrew Morrison and Peter Hemmersam, Oslo School of
Architecture and Design; Andrea Grant Broom, Cape Peninsula University
of Technology; and Ola Erstad, University of Oslo). In this article the agenda
of design education and learning is pursued with a focus on developing our
understanding of how educators of design, urbanism and sustainability may
engage in proactive efforts to bring emergent design practices and changing
societal needs for design’s value creation together. The authors base their key
argument on four interesting case studies, spanning the African and European
continents. The imperative of advancing futuring pedagogical practice, the
authors argue, may be achieved as educators and students engage in co-creat-
ing learning ecologies. Such learning ecologies afford an agile pedagogy and
a multimodal as well as highly context-sensitive learning experience in deal-
ing with schisms between what is and what might be in contemporary urban
design(er) engagements.
The third article, ‘Can participatory design support the transition into
innovative learning environments?’ by Bodil Bøjer from The Royal Danish
Academy of Fine Arts, School of Design, rounds off this issue’s collection of
papers invested in research related to design education and pedagogical prac-
tice. In this article Bøjer discusses issues of integrating changing pedagogical
REFERENCES
Jensen, H.-C. (2019), ‘Positioning design professions’, in G. Julier, A. V. Munch,
M. N. Folkmann, H.-C. Jensen and N. P. Skou (eds), Design Culture: Objects
and Approaches, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, pp. 111–13.
Julier, G. (2014), The Culture of Design, London: Sage.
Nicky Nedergaard has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work in the format that
was submitted to Intellect Ltd.