Leder. Utdanning for ny praksis II

Dette temanummeret av FormAkademisk er det andre i rekken som oppsummerer fyrtårnsprosjektet Didaktikk for teknologi, design og innovasjon (2016-2021). Det første temanummeret ble publisert i 2020 (Nielsen et al, 2020). Fyrtårnsprosjektet er finansiert av Fakultet for Teknologi, kunst og design (TKD) ved OsloMet – storbyuniversitetet. Når prosjektet nå er avsluttet er det to områder der prosjektet har bidratt til utvikling av praksis. Det gjelder utviklingen av et fruktbart samarbeid om undervisning, tek­n­ologi og forskning innad på TKD, men også med andre forskere og institusjoner. Videre gjelder det internasjonal profilering av design- og designdidaktisk forskning ved TKD gjennom internasjonale forsk­er­­nettverk, publikasjoner og konferanser.

Leder. Bli med på dugnaden fagfellevurdering!

Myndighetene har sagt at vi alle må delta i dugnaden for å bekjempe smitte fra kor­ona­viruset. Vi i redak­sjonen i FormAkademisk ber dere om å si ja til å bidra til den dugnaden som fag­felle­vurdering av artikler er. Alle artikler må vurderes av minst to uavhengige fagfeller. Under korona­pandemien har vi dessverre opplevd at langt flere takker nei til å bidra til dette viktige og helt nød­vendige bidraget for vitenskapelig publisering. Mange forfattere har måttet vente uvanlig lenge på tilbakemelding på artiklene de har sendt inn til FormAkademisk. I FormAkademisk spør vi alltid de beste forskerne først om å være fagfelle for artiklene forskere sender inn. Vi spør internasjonalt ledende forskere dersom artikkelen er skrevet på engelsk og i Skandinavia hvis artikkelen er skrevet på norsk, svensk eller dansk. De aller beste forskerne, som kanskje har det mest travelt, svarer oftest ja og leverer fagfellevurderinga si raskest. Så, hvis vi spør deg, er det fordi vi mener du er best til å vurdere akkurat den artikkelen. Å være fagfelle for andre gir også god læring for deg, både når det gjelder å bli oppdatert på ny faglig kunnskap og for gode referanser for egen vitenskapelig skriving. For hver artikkel du får fag­fellevurdert, bør du si ja til minst to artikler andre har skrevet – fordi det er minst to som har fag­fellevurdert din artikkel. Det er rettferdig!

Working Together: Cooperation or Collaboration?

Teamwork involves different types of interactions—specifically cooperation and collaboration—that are necessary in education and many other professions. The differences between cooperation and collaboration underline the teacher’s role in influencing group dynamics, which represent both a found­ation for professional design education and a prequalification for students’ competences as teachers and for critical evaluation. As a test case, we focused on the Working Together action-research project in design education for specialised teacher training in design, arts, and crafts at the Oslo Metropolitan University, which included three student groups in the material areas of drawing, ceramics, and textiles. The project developed the participants’ patience, manual skills, creativity, and abilities, which are important personal qualities for design education and innovation and represent cornerstones in almost every design literacy and business environment. The hope is that students will transform these compe­tences to teaching pupils of all ages in their future careers.

Framing the concept design literacy for a general public

Educating the general public to be design literate can be a catalyst for both environmental protection and degradation, human aid and human-made disasters depending on how the scope of design is framed – and how ‘design literacy’ is defined. This paper explores how to cultivate design literacy that supports critical innovation and a transition towards more sustainable societies. The research approach is a literature review of key texts that promote and conceptualize design literacy as part of general edu­cation. Four narratives are identified as vital: a) ‘Awareness through making’, b) ‘Empower for change and citizen participation’, c) ‘Address complexity of real-world problems’, and d) ‘Participate in design processes’. Moving towards more sustainable modes of consumption and production, a design literate general public provides a critical mass of users empowered to question how a new innovation sup­ports the well-being of people and the planet and to voice their own ideas.

Learning to create images with computer code

Programming is becoming a part of the school curricula in Norway both in lower and upper secondary education – this includes subjects such as art, design and craft. What can programming contribute to the learning processes of these subjects? ‘Tinkering’ is a creative phase in a learning/working process, emphasising both creation and learning. In this project, visual images are created via computer programming to enhance the main author’s learning. The process is structured into stages. The important phases of the learning process are realised as a result of tinkering with existing codes. An important discovery for the learner, and one key aspect of programming images is that, as a mode, it opens up ways to create repetitions effectively, resulting in various patterns. This turned out to be motivating for the learner. This paper discusses tinkering as a learning process that is relevant to programming within art, design and craft education.

Aarup 1960 and the poetics of materials

All design has its own conditional modes of expression; however, these are realised through the maker’s sense of the possibilities of materiality. This essay was inspired by a reclaimed piece of 1960s furniture designed in the modernist idiom, and is based upon autobiographical experiences, original works from own and contemporary aesthetic practices, and associated thoughts in the present. A completely new artistic expression was developed, which questioned the strict, use-defined style ideals and let shape reveal other values and statements than function. The intention of this essay is to put into words some of the cognitive processes in which creativity, critical reflection and the senses’ experience-based insights may bring up something new. In creative work, the goal is not to reach a single result; every little discovery made by examining something specific could open up new worlds.

Networking for strengthening design literacy

This article focuses on design education for the general public and the ways in which students and teachers can become more design literate through the development of networks, such as professional groups for teachers. The aim of professional groups is to create a structure that focuses on design competency among Design, Art and Crafts teachers as well as design education in Norway’s primary and secondary schools. Etienne Wenger's theories of community of practice and Unn Stålsett's theory about the development of networking through professional groups are highlighted in this study through the comparison of two municipalities in conjunction with informant interviews. The emphasis of this study is on how each municipality gives time and space for the development of design competence through professional groups. A well-organized professional group will hopefully contribute to a deeper level of expertise in schools and an increased ability for the general public to recognize design education.

Social innovation for modified consumption by means of the school subject Art and crafts

In this paper I will take a look at how one can facilitate the change in consumption through social inno­vation, based on the subject of art and design in Norwegian general education. This paper will give a presentation of books, featured relevant articles and formal documents put into context to identify different causal mechanisms around our consumption. The discussion will be anchored around the resources and condition that must be provided to achieve and identify opportunities for action under the subject of Art and crafts, a subject in Norwegian general education with designing at the core of the subject, ages 6–16. The question that this paper points toward is: How can we, based on the subject of Art and crafts in primary schools, facilitate the change in consumption through social innovation?

Design Process Models as Metaphors in Education Context

We argue that visual representations of design processes contribute toward social and material practices of design(ing). They are used as didactic devices. We will discuss them using metaphors to illustrate that they are active material devices of which circulation, production and consumption are informed and informing perceived complexities, ambiguities and paradoxes associated with design. We propose a follow-up study to investigate how teachers and designers use and interpret visual design process models. The reason is to identify how these models are informing what design is as we are interested to understand how these models are contributing to the development of Design Literacies.