Art and Design Pedagogy in Higher Education: Knowledge, values and ambiguity in the creative curriculum

Critical Analysis

Chapter 1: Introduction

The authors describe the focus of this book: it is an exploration into the knowledge, values, and ambiguity of the messy state of art and design education.

Students who are in an art and design program are forming a new identity. Their education is co-created; “art and design students do not follow a path; they leave a trail.” The curriculum has structures that are continuous in supporting that path. These include a flexibility to the curriculum, a focus on making things, a reliance on students working by themselves, and the use of adjunct practitioners to teach. Studio is a place where “students forge a way to becoming creative practitioners.”

The authors note that creativity is intertwined with the discussion of art and design education. They view creativity as a social activity, one that can be taught, and that underlies identity. Challenging, however, is the fact that creativity and art and design are taught in the “corporate heart of the university machine,” where traditionally, “learning outcomes were written, timetable software was used, modularity sliced the courses into credit chunks and regulations were applied.”

Chapter 2 – Knowledge and knowing in practice

In this chapter, the authors examine the way knowledge is produced in a studio environment. They describe how knowledge is often tacit for instructors, and students co-create knowledge through the process of making things.

Studio education appears informal and unstructured: “In the studio students and tutors appear to be chatting, formal lesson plans are probably brief and there are likely to be few required readings… students and tutors spend long periods in activities which may result in unfinished outcomes.” Some might view this as poor teaching, as it looks unstructured and messy. This form of learning follows the theory of social constructivism, with practice at the core. Knowledge is not transmitted from an instructor to a student; it emerges through a process of making things and responding to what is made.

A challenge in art and design education is that “art is only deemed to be art by the gatekeepers of social convention.” This means that subjectivity underlies a great deal of what students make. There is a distinction, then, between “knowing how” and “knowing that,” with “knowing how” as the primary form of knowledge: “it is this kind of procedural knowing, being able to do certain kinds of things, which underpins the creative practices of artists and designers.” Additionally, a lack of “how” knowledge is also valuable, as “the idea of making mistakes leading to creative readjustment is a commonly held tenet of art and design education.” Students are encouraged to make mistakes.

Instructors hold tacit knowledge, often related to the physical act of making things (such as holding a tool or feeling a material). The use of creative-specific language is also tacit, and students begin to learn the use of metaphors appropriately; when they are able to speak of design, “it is an indication that they have understood and are becoming part of the community of practice.” All of this can be considered embodied knowledge; this is highly situational. Learning becomes about identity development and gaining membership into a practice.

Challenging to all of this is that “there is no specific right answer, and at the beginning of a project students and tutors do not know the outcome or result.” Sometimes, the student actually is more expert than the instructor, and power shifts and “may disrupt the order of the studio.”

Chapter 3 – The construction and meaning of value(s)

In this chapter, the authors examine where values are created during art and design education.

The critique is one of the main places that personal values are formed; quoting Moran, the authors note that “the crit is a public revealing of a private activity.” Art and design school itself instills meaning and worth in students. The school holds certain values, as does industry, and all of these are negotiated.

The authors briefly address what they consider myths of art and design education; one is that students need to take risks: “The idea of risk taking as a valued student behavior has been prevent in Western art and design education for many years.” It is a “valorized practice that is so mainstream within art and design education” that it is rarely questioned. Equally celebrated and rarely challenged is the idea that failure is essential to learning.

Some students are valued, and deemed “first class.” Those students are able to argue for their work and decisions, and in one of Orr’s previous studies, “were in the studio a lot, thereby keeping in regular dialogue with tutors.” They are on their way towards becoming a designer, as “creative education is about identity formation.” This is an “ideal student… one who is relentlessly pursuing their practice and who is always in the studio until it closes.” The authors note that a student can’t be present if they are parents or need to work, and the “idea of the ever-present student is a masculinized idea of the student unencumbered with children, financial constraints or responsibility.”

Chapter 4 – Ambiguity and uncertainty in creative education

In this chapter, the authors try to show the role ambiguity plays in art and design education.

The curriculum in art and design education is ambiguous. Students “work individually and collaboratively on projects that are emergent, and as a result their learning needs may not be apparent at the start of a given unit or module. Compounding this is that the faculty may have no understanding of the subject, either. Students have different levels of comfort with this uncertainty, and to support them, the authors claim that the studio must be a “safe environment that supports risk taking.”

This chapter was not very helpful.

Chapter 5 – The sticky curriculum in art and design: identity and engagement

In this chapter, the authors describe the way identity development is intertwined in the experience of art and design education.

Instructors argue that a “commitment to hard work” is required to succeed in art and design education, and “’the work’ is the centre of the creative practice. The ‘work’ is also synonymous with the person of the student and is an integral part of their professional identity.” This implies that, at least in part, design education is intended to foster a sense of identity development while simultaneously fostering creation of “the work.” A great deal of this work is ambiguous; it is ambiguous in how it is assigned, and the language of assessment and “studio encounters” are equally as confusing. Both are emotional.

Students are “learning to think and act as professionals” where the ability to “articulate a critical view and to defend one’s own work” are indicators of success. This is in service of creation of a professional identity. The use of language is “crucial to an identity of becoming. Students begin to acquire the right kind of terminology and the metaphors which are used by professional practitioners.” This is a form of language currency, and is “also a visual language, material in form, and this too is central to student identity.” The instructor becomes a guide, helping students learn this spoken and visual language and formalize their own values, beliefs and goals.

Research Value

The value of this work in informing my own research is that it:

• Adds depth to the idea of entering a community of practice and developing a designerly identity
• Reinforces the view of studio education as a place of knowledge production, rather than knowledge articulation; studio is embodied and comes to life in real-time
• Describes that being in studio is idealized, and that having outside responsibilities are ignored
• Reinforces the idea that studio is about making things and identity development
• Positions the work—the activity, and the output—at the center of creative identity
• Describes language as a key “currency” of designerly identity, and extends that language to both verbal and visual