21st Century Skills: critical awareness, empathy, and sensitivity for future fashion and design graduates
A SERIES OF LEARNING, TEACHING AND RESEARCH ACTIVITIES DESIGNED TO PROMOTE
IMPORTANT 21ST CENTURY SKILLS FOR DESIGN GRADUATES.
(A series of collaborative projects conducted during, and shortly after, Covid-19 lockdowns)
HOW CAN WE SUPPORT OUR STUDENTS IN GAINING UNDERSTANDING AND
EMPATHY FOR THEIR FELLOW GLOBAL CITIZENS, WHILE DEVELOPING THEIR
SKILLS AS DESIGNERS?
…It matters what thoughts think thoughts.
Donna Haraway, 2016: 35
TEAM MEMBERS
Kirsten Scott, Mohsin Ali, Janet Sartor, Federica Capitani, Leo Blonda, Alessandro Monaco, Marina South, Julie Ross at Istituto Marangoni London.
Sveta Bogova Jovanovska, Yelena Kharitonova + Partenija Zografski School tutors and students in Skopje, Macedonia.
Yvonne Ntiamoah, Samuel Bonney at JACCD Design School Africa, in Accra, Ghana.
Daniel Kirkland, from Upsurgent NGO
Research aims
To provide opportunities within learning and teaching for fashion and design students to learn to distinguish the differences between inspiration and appropriation.
To support students in gaining appreciation for the significance and value of cultural crafts to their communities.
To enable our students to develop skills in collaborative and reciprocal working relationships, as designers and global citizens, founded on empathy and sensitivity to others.
Our process and activities
Project 1 – Istituto Marangoni London x PartenijaZografski School for Skopje Fashion Week 2020
Project 2 – Istituto Marangoni London x JACCD Design School, Accra, Ghana 2021, 2022
(more detail of this project, which extended in time and scope is provided elsewhere, as it evolved into the Design Process Interventions project)
Project 3 – Istituto Marangoni London x Upsurgent NGO, 2022
The research applied project-based learning and teaching methods, drawing upon collaborative project formation and was supported by regular consultation with partner organisations and communities; observation of the activities and outcomes developed by students; feedback from tutors; feedback from partner organisations; and feedback gathered from the students themselves.
Istituto Marangoni London x PartenijaZografski School for Skopje Fashion Week 2020
Istituto Marangoni London x Upsurgent NGO, 2022
Conclusions
Collaboration across geographical and disciplinary boundaries is highly beneficial to students’ learning.
Students gained a better understanding of how to work respectfully with the cultural property of others by working in consultation with local stakeholders.
It is crucial to undertake in depth personal research.
Including a personal narrative in the research and design process is important in preventing a more literal take and use approach.
All sides were able to learn something from one another.
Listening, sharing, listening, responding.
We are keen to build on these international collaborations!