Enacting Pluriversal Design Education: The Importance of Positionality and Intersectionality in Practice

Approaches to tertiary design education in Australia have predominantly drawn on pedagogies and practices from the Global North, often promoting a singularly view, understanding, and accepted aesthetic of design. This “universal” or homogenized understanding has often been at the expense of local identities and traditions, which have often been erased or flattened, leading to narrow representations and ways of being a designer. As dialogues and conceptions of design are shifting to include more decolonial and pluriversal perspectives from many localities around the world, design education is contributing to more diverse systems of practice, critical examinations of design history, and ways of designing.

We seek to build on dialogues in Design Issues in support of critical pedagogy where students and educators are encouraged to reflect on the power dynamics, ideologies, and cultural implications inherent in design. O’Shea argues that designers should be reflecting on their position in society, both in training and in practice, and be open to changing their assumptions, approaches, and understandings of the discipline as a result. Many authors underscore the importance of teaching design in relation to its historical and cultural settings and in presenting design history as a legitimate area of pedagogy and research in design studies.