Bridging Diversity: Ethical Considerations in Design Education

Abstract

At its most fundamental level, design is about intention and action towards a desirable end. Design graduates are entering a professional world where street-savvy audience profiling is required daily. For these future architects of our communication environment, the challenge of preparing effective, ethical messages grows as the ethnic complexities of global culture continue to emerge. To this end, design education should emphasize intention and reception towards ends that are responsible in a societal context.

Sticks + Stones, a multi-university collaboration curriculum project, emphasizes that designers occupy positions of power in our global culture, that this power must be used responsibly, and that designers should assume proactive roles in support of community and society. In addition, the project explores interpersonal and intercultural issues among students diverse in ethnicity, religious practice, heritage, gender, and sexual orientation. Sticks + Stones' innovative course structure and curriculum expands students' knowledge of regional and global subcultures, forces a reconsideration of existing preconceptions, and exposes some of the fallacies embedded in the common act of stereotyping groups and individuals.

The 2010 Sticks + Stones iteration will gather design students from China, Turkey, Germany, and the United States to follow a collaborative curriculum that sometimes requires risk-taking and confrontation on the way to understanding between individuals and groups. The curriculum will include traditional studio work, participation in online forums, and an international symposium in Berlin. This vibrant yet historically conflict-ridden city provides an appropriate backdrop for a curriculum addressing individual identity, propaganda, and the potential perpetuation of stereotypes by communication designers. Through design projects and forthright discussions about image perceptions, faculty will challenge students to (re)evaluate the stereotypes they hold of others, analyze the potentially unethical and stereotypical messages in contemporary design works, and then create small group and collective pieces in response to issues of stereotyping as it impacts views of immigration. Visits to the Holocaust Memorial, the Berlin Wall, and the Jewish Museum will enrich the students' work and discussions. Online interaction will play a significant role in facilitating group participation and in extending the project to a wider audience. Project followers will be able to track the progress and observations of students as well as add their voice to the dialogue.

Presenters will discuss the challenges and opportunities of multi-university collaboration curricula that integrate ethics into traditional, profession-oriented design education. Producing such a project includes bridging language gaps, overcoming institutional, governmental and political obstacles, and coordinating diverse international pedagogical practices.

Key Words:

• Diversity
• Ethics
• Global Communications
• Confrontation
• Collaboration