Teaching Design Thinking in a Research-Intensive University at a Time of Rapid Change

In this paper we present a snapshot of the theories, intentions, practices and outcomes produced by a teaching and learning collaboration. This is located geographically and culturally at the University of Warwick, and temporally across the period 2020-2021 marked by the global pandemic. The case study illustrates how a designerly, flexible, open, collaborative approach to learning design allowed for effective adaptation to changing circumstances. This was more effective through being formulated as an ethical approach to Design Thinking, shared by teachers, students, the host department, and collaborators (including two VR companies, a physical theatre company, and a design researcher from South Africa). By developing a humanitarian, ethical, and philosophically grounded Design Thinking, and using it for founding principles, the teaching team were able to adapt and learn, making the most of what was possible. We explore this method in depth, focussing upon how a reflective appreciation of modes of knowledge, and the use of visualisations helps us to cope with the complexity of what we are doing together, before, during, and after the period of disruption

Using design thinking to create sustainable communities

This innovative practice paper discusses an example of a participatory design-led sustainability project. Using a Design Thinking approach to problem solving, the project brought together university staff and students and a Council around a local sustainability challenge. Design Thinking was applied as an interdisciplinary methodology with the objective to equip students with sustainability skills and competences, resulting in a replicable method for responding to local sustainability challenges. By empowering diverse participants to contribute equally and freely, our application of Design Thinking created positive spillover effects on students and staff sense of community. The focus of the Challenge was on the discovery and co-creation of ideas to solve a problem related to local public transport. The driving principle of the Challenge was that participants, also public transport users, could bring their own lived experience to the Challenge and therefore could co-create and put forward potential solutions with the support of a local Council, and sustainability and Design Thinking experts on campus. In the process of doing so, participants framed and reframed the challenge from different angles and perspectives, opening a co-creation dialogue about community needs on and off campus, and their role in contributing to sustainability locally

Problem representations of employability in higher education : using design thinking and critical analysis as tools for social justice in careers education

We present an analysis of narratives that emerged from a recent interdisciplinary design thinking careers intervention exploring how employability is represented within one UK University. We conducted a critical discourse analysis using a policy analysis framework that revealed four emergent problem representations. These exposed tacit assumptions about students’ lack of employability skills and the responsibilisation of ‘employability’, amplified silences around opportunity structures and highlighted unquestioned expectations about employability in the neoliberalist paradigm. The need for critical discourse is foregrounded, as is the importance of collective engagement in reframing these narratives. Design Thinking shows promise as a novel intervention for future career education practice, enabling practitioners and individuals to begin to co-create a new critical consciousness

Practice Guides : guides to ESD in practice

This set of ESD practice guides are intended to offer examples of activity already being undertaken in the UK higher and further education sectors to embed Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) into teaching, learning and assessment. The guides complement guides published in 2021 by Advance HE and QAA

The 3Cs : a pioneering approach to co-creating sustainability education through design thinking

Sustainability is a problematic term, which is by nature controversial. It addresses the tensions between economic, social and environmental development and combines them into a single concept. An emergent concept in (Warwick) education, sustainability has a home in several academic and non-academic departments, at times lacking visibility and impact on the learning community, the campus itself and the local community it is a part of. This can lead to the creation of silos, missed interdisciplinary learning opportunities, and lack of well-articulated signature pedagogies

UK universities can go further to support the resilience of Ukrainian higher education

Many universities in the UK have supported their counterparts in Ukraine by twinning with universities, providing refuge for Ukrainian academics and offering places and scholarships for Ukrainian students. Two years on, the impact of war on universities continues and we’re taking stock of what the impact has been on the sector in Ukraine and how UK universities can and already are making a continued contribution to Ukrainian resilience