Cultural Heritage–Driven Product Design as Pedagogical Practice: Evidence from Studio-Based Projects

Cultural heritage–driven product design has become increasingly essential in the era of glocalisation, where local identities must engage productively with global markets. This study examines how cultural heritage–driven product design can be embedded within design education through studio-based learning. The research investigates how industrial design students in Nigeria apply cultural knowledge in ceramic, textile, and graphic design projects. Using a practice-based approach, the study analyses student studio projects, design processes, and prototypes to explore how cultural awareness shapes design outcomes. Theoretical perspectives from cultural economics and participatory design highlight the economic, pedagogical, and socio-cultural value of heritage-infused products. Student outputs demonstrate meaningful reinterpretation of heritage elements rather than superficial replication, revealing the pedagogical value of culturally grounded design education. The findings contribute to design education discourse by illustrating how culturally responsive pedagogy strengthens identity formation, innovation capability, and entrepreneurial readiness within higher education contexts

Hands-On Learning and Design Thinking in Secondary Design and Technology Education

Design and Technology (D&T) education occupies a distinctive position within the secondary curriculum through its historical emphasis on designing, making, and evaluating tangible artefacts. Drawing on a doctoral study, this article examines how the secondary school experiences of ten pre-service D&T teachers in Western Australia shaped their engagement with the subject. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, data were generated through in-depth interviews. Analysis revealed three interrelated themes: the power of practical engagement, experiences of success in the workshop, and limitations in opportunities for explicit design thinking. Findings indicate that hands-on, workshop-based learning played an important role in fostering confidence, motivation, and a sense of belonging, particularly for participants who struggled in more traditional academic subjects. However, participants also reported that junior secondary experiences were frequently characterised by prescriptive, skills-based tasks with limited emphasis on explicit design processes. While practical making, sustained engagement, and enjoyment were evident, the absence of structured design thinking constrained opportunities for creative exploration, iteration, and higher-order learning. The study highlights a persistent tension between making and designing in D&T education and underscores the importance of maintaining their integration to preserve the subject’s pedagogical integrity and distinctiveness within secondary schooling

Revisiting the Intersections of Art and Design in Contemporary Design Education: A Systematic Literature Review (2010–2025)

Art and design education have become increasingly interconnected within contemporary higher education, particularly as institutions emphasise creativity, critical thinking, and digital innovation as core learning objectives. Despite this convergence, the conceptual, pedagogical, and epistemological boundaries between art and design remain inconsistently articulated and often contested in educational scholarship. This systematic literature review examines 72 peer-reviewed journal articles published between 2010 and 2025 that explicitly discuss both “art” and “design” in educational contexts, with a particular focus on pedagogical practices relevant to design and technologies education. The review identifies four interrelated thematic clusters: pedagogical integration, technological mediation, curriculum and assessment reform, and creativity as a shared learning outcome. Across the literature, art is commonly associated with expression, aesthetics, reflection, and affective engagement, while design is typically framed around purpose, problem-solving, systems thinking, and process. However, the findings demonstrate a clear shift towards understanding art and design as interdependent forms of knowledge-making, increasingly taught through studio-based, experiential, and technology-enhanced pedagogies that foreground reflection, critique, and material engagement. Rather than collapsing disciplinary distinctions, contemporary scholarship supports an epistemologically unified continuum in which artistic and design practices are productively reconfigured to support creative literacy, reflective judgment, and socially responsive making. The review further reveals a strong Western and industrial bias in existing research, with limited representation of African and Global South perspectives, despite the presence of indigenous craft and material cultures that already integrate art–design epistemologies. The study concludes by underscoring the need for more situated, practice-based, and culturally responsive research to advance a pluralistic global discourse on art–design pedagogy, particularly within underrepresented educational contexts

Design Futures: beyond the rhetoric

My daughter’s high school has a new entrance sign declaring: ‘Designing Futures’. During open days, schools pledge to educate young people for an unknown future, while the Australian National Technologies Curriculum positions designing for preferred futures as a central aim. This paper undertakes a scoping review of research literature in design and education contexts to explore what lies behind the rhetoric of this statement and, more importantly, how such aspirations are enacted in educational contexts. Designing for preferred futures is not a simple proposition. Framed in this way, it appears profound and laden with promise, yet the concepts of design and futures are often ill‑defined, aspirational, and abstract, rendering them elusive and challenging to teach. Schools frequently invoke the language of futures implicitly, suggesting that they already deliver futures‑focused education; however, publicly available materials often reveal little explicit engagement with how or why such claims are made. The literature indicates that designing for preferred futures requires critical, creative, collaborative, imaginative, and speculative thinking, supported by amplified models of design pedagogy suited to educational contexts. Drawing on this body of work, the paper maps key ideas and approaches emerging across disciplines and identifies practical directions for educators, including the development of a shared design futures vocabulary, strategies for conceptual design thinking in futures contexts, and methods for applying futures‑oriented design in classroom projects. While design educators are far from ambivalent about the implications of design futures rhetoric, the literature suggests that practical and inspiring ways to translate these ambitions into teaching practice remain under‑developed

Extant use of Artificial Intelligence in developing Design Variations in Design Studios in Kumasi Technical University

This study investigated the extant use of artificial intelligence (AI) for generating design variations in studio-based design education, focusing on the Departments of Construction Technology and Quantity Surveying and Interior Design & Materials Technology at Kumasi Technical University. A convergent parallel mixed-methods design was employed in which 130 students completed counterbalanced ideation tasks under AI-assisted and traditional conditions, and ten lecturers provided expert evaluation and qualitative insight. Outputs were assessed using expert rubrics (novelty, diversity, feasibility, aesthetic quality), automated CLIP-based diversity/novelty metrics, task logs, and interviews. Quantitative analyses showed that AI substantially increased ideation productivity (Mean variations: AI = 10.6 vs Traditional = 5.2; F(1,129) = 118.45, p < .001, η² = .48) and yielded higher novelty and diversity scores (expert means: Novelty 5.8 vs 3.9; Diversity 6.1 vs 4.2; both p < .001), while feasibility was reduced (4.6 vs 5.4; p = .021). Prompt specificity and instructor scaffolding were strong mediators of output quality (prompt specificity r = .61, p < .001). Qualitative findings revealed benefits for divergent exploration alongside risks of design fixation, stylistic homogenization, and ethical concerns (authorship, copyright, and cultural bias). The study concludes that AI functions best as a complementary ideation tool when embedded within scaffolded pedagogy emphasizing prompt literacy, critical evaluation rubrics and ethical guidance. Practical recommendations include curriculum modules on AI and prompt engineering, institutional policies for IP and cultural dataset development, and further longitudinal and industry-linked research to assess long-term impacts on creativity and professional practice

Students immersing themselves in empathic design – A case study of Finnish 8th graders’ crafting process

In this study, we explore the integration of user-centred and empathic design approaches within Finnish basic education craft studies, in which students engage in a holistic craft process, from ideation to planning, making and reflection. Data were collected from eighth‑grade students and analysed using a multimodal approach to capture the varied ways in which the students expressed and developed their design thinking. The findings show that embedding empathy and user-oriented perspectives into the craft process enhances the meaningfulness and perceived relevance of the products to the students. These approaches also contribute to greater product longevity, as students design with real users’ needs and emotional experiences in mind. However, the successful implementation of empathic and user-centred design requires sustained pedagogical support throughout all stages of the craft process. This study highlights the importance of teacher facilitation in helping students translate empathic insights into concrete design decisions, ultimately enriching both the learning experience and the quality of the final products

Evaluation of the Teaching and Learning of 3-D Computer-Aided Design in the Department of Integrated Rural Art and Industry, KNUST, Ghana

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of teaching and learning 3-D computer-aided design (CAD) in the Department of Integrated Rural Art and Industry (IRAI) at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana. The program aims to equip learners with practical skills to enhance their execution of works of art using state-of-the-art technologies. However, despite being introduced into the IRAI curriculum over 10 years ago, an evaluation has not been conducted to assess its effectiveness and impact on learners. In view of this, the study sought to evaluate the effectiveness of the teaching and learning of 3-D CAD in the Department of IRAI. The researchers employed a mixed- method research design and utilized descriptive statistical methods to collect and analyze data for the study. Kirkpatrick’s 4 Levels of Instructional Evaluation Model was adopted as a lens to gain insight into the effectiveness of 3-D CAD on students. Two hundred and nine (209) respondents made up of 207 fourth-year and third-year undergraduate students as well as 2 lecturers were purposively sampled for the study. The findings revealed that 3-D CAD enhanced traditional methods of designing and problem-solving, leading students to become more aware of new aspects of visual expression

Structural Conditions and Teacher Agency in Technology Education: A Mixed-Methods Cluster Analysis of Educational Contexts

This study examines how differing structural and organisational conditions shape the practices of technology teachers in Swedish schools. Using cluster analysis on survey data, two distinct teacher profiles emerged. Teachers in Cluster 1 report working in relatively well-resourced environments, with access to subject-specific materials, dedicated teaching spaces, and collegial support. Their teaching reflects the integration of technology education within the broader school structure, characterised by continuity, progression, and a balanced blend of theoretical and practical approaches that address sustainability, technical systems, and digital competence. In contrast, teachers in Cluster 2 face constrained organisational and material conditions, with limited access to equipment, space, and formal support. Their practice involves short-term planning and situational adaptation to maintain student engagement, with technology education sometimes marginalised or integrated into other subjects without clear boundaries. Qualitative analysis of open-ended responses further reveals how these contextual differences shape curriculum enactment and pedagogical decisions. The findings illustrate the ongoing negotiation between external constraints and teacher agency, highlighting the complexities encountered across different professional profiles. These insights emphasise the importance of acknowledging diverse teacher contexts when designing policies and supports to advance equity and effectiveness in technology education

Looking, Experimenting, Creating, Telling – Testing a Pedagogical Model for Design Learning

This article shares the outcomes of international workshops focused on traditional costume construction and surface embellishment techniques and designs. These workshops were inspired by the findings of the Creative Europe TRACtion (Traditional Costume Innovation) project. The latter motivated students and adult learners in the Republic of Ireland, Finland, and Malta to develop creative, sustainable, and innovative responses to traditional textile artefacts. The Finnish Association of Design Learning (SuoMu) Design Learning Model was applied to support the development of creative thinking in the workshops. Additionally, teaching strategies developed by textile educators and craftspeople in each context complemented the SuoMu Design Learning Model, facilitating interactions between workshop ideas, materials and participants. The workshops aimed to foster design, creative thinking, sustainability, innovation, and a deeper appreciation of textile heritage. Participant feedback was analysed through thematic data analysis, and the visual outcomes were examined for indicators of creative thinking, such as fluidity, flexibility, elaboration, and uniqueness. The SuoMu model played a key role in guiding the design process and developing creative thinking skills. Sketching and brainstorming techniques sparked a wealth of ideas, while group activities and practical and experiential learning supported the ideation process. The workshops led to numerous fluent and flexible responses and ideas, many of which evolved into unique and innovative designs. Participants developed visual literacy skills and textile cultural empathy while achieving sustainability in material usage