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Meaning Making and the Design Student: Fostering Self-Authorship in a Studio Based Design Course

Keller, Katharine
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1405604638

Abstract Details

2014, Master of Fine Arts, Ohio State University, Industrial, Interior Visual Communication Design.
The designers of our future will enter the work force at a time like no other. Globalization has created an interconnection between cultures and diversity has become a social norm. Political and economic crises erupt on a daily basis and climate change has become the focus of worldwide concern. The rapid change in technology provides an endless supply of new knowledge and brings these complexities to our daily lives. The students that enter design school today will have no choice but to make meaning of and navigate through these complexities in order to respond to the ever-changing needs of the clients and stakeholders. To adapt to these changes, the design industry itself is calling for design education reform. The calls for reform describe a designer with new skill sets, such as capability of complex thought, autonomy, and an ability to make meaning in the context of experience. Research indicates that for the student to make meaning of these complexities, they must develop a complex meaning-making framework. Self-Authorship is one theory, derived from student identity development, attempts to define the complex meaning-making framework. The Self-Authored person has the capacity for reflective judgment, intellectual power, the ability to make mature decisions and solve problems in context, the ability to recognize and comprehend social issues, hold respect for self and others identities and cultures, empathy, confidence and awareness. Since these are also the desired traits being called for in design education reform, it is clear that the shift in design pedagogy must move in the direction of the development of the whole human being. Building on the current literature for fostering Self-Authorship as well as alternative pedagogies, this thesis explores how to foster the complex meaning-making framework in the context of the studio based design course. This was an interventional study spanning two consecutive semesters for which I was the primary instructor. Fourteen sophomore interior design students participated in the intervention and were assessed both pre and post study to determine their level of meaning making. Each participant experienced varying degrees of development ranging from minimal to high levels. Grounded theory method was used to analyze which methods and techniques utilized throughout the intervention fostered positive results toward development. Through this analysis, a model and framework were developed as a tool for fostering Self-Authorship in a studio based design class. The framework has implications for both current and future design students as it provides the design educator a blueprint for implementing a variety of techniques for fostering development into the current curriculum. The framework was designed to be flexible so that it could be modified and evolve with unforeseen conditions and the changing needs of the design student.
Jeffrey Haase (Advisor)
Elizabeth Sanders, PhD (Committee Member)
Candace Stout, PhD (Committee Member)
227 p.
Design
Design Education; meaning-making; self-authorship; fostering identity development

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Keller, K. (2014). Meaning Making and the Design Student: Fostering Self-Authorship in a Studio Based Design Course [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1405604638

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Keller, Katharine. Meaning Making and the Design Student: Fostering Self-Authorship in a Studio Based Design Course . 2014. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1405604638.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Keller, Katharine. "Meaning Making and the Design Student: Fostering Self-Authorship in a Studio Based Design Course ." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1405604638

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1405604638
335
© 2014, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.