Designing in and for Communities: Breaking Institutional Bariers and Engaging Design Students in Meaningful and Relevant Projects

Abstract

Traditional art and design curriculum revolves around instructing students and evaluating their individual projects without considering that a student’s future professional life and success will require that he or she function in a complex design environment with multi-faceted levels of relationships. Educators nurture, and the institution rewards, the ‘me’ designer while the professional world requires that a designer operates as ‘we’ and ‘us’.