Manuhuia Barcham, Associate Professor of Interaction Design, Faculty of Design & Dynamic Media, Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Vancouver, Canada
Design pedagogy is inherently oriented toward the future. Our task as design educators is to cultivate the design leaders of tomorrow. In an era of increased uncertainty, the incorporation of design literacies and futures literacies in our pedagogical practice can better help prepare students for what lies ahead. Defined as a skill that draws on collective intelligence, imagination, and experimentation, futures literacy, and likewise design literacy, focuses on strengthening people’s abilities to interpret complex situations and to shape actions that align with the futures they hope to create. Yet how can this actually be achieved? By investigating these two forms of literacy, this presentation and discussion aims to rethink both how we design and what we teach in design. In doing so, it offers a provocation to those of us in design education to consider how we might think differently, design differently, and so too teach design differently.