Towards an internationalised product design curriculum

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Author(s)
Loy, Jennifer
Welch, Donald
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2013
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Students starting their Product Design studies in Australia next year will be graduating into a very internationalised profession. Production has moved increasingly off shore, markets are increasingly global and collaborations are increasingly made across country boundaries. Higher Education programs have been responding slowly to these changes but a more fundamental shift in thinking is needed to redesign Product Design education for the realities of the new environment for Australian design graduates. Internationalisation of the curriculum cannot be limited to including examples of designs from other countries and giving ...
View more >Students starting their Product Design studies in Australia next year will be graduating into a very internationalised profession. Production has moved increasingly off shore, markets are increasingly global and collaborations are increasingly made across country boundaries. Higher Education programs have been responding slowly to these changes but a more fundamental shift in thinking is needed to redesign Product Design education for the realities of the new environment for Australian design graduates. Internationalisation of the curriculum cannot be limited to including examples of designs from other countries and giving students opportunities to take part in projects abroad, it needs to be extended so that students understand cultural difference. Understanding the reasons behind production values and behaviours in different cultures needs to be overt in the Australian Product Design curriculum, providing strategies for graduates joining companies that are finding themselves increasingly dependent on international relationships. Using the relationship of Australia with China as an example, this paper discusses the issues for Australian Product Design educators in identifying and exploring the culture based attitudes, design values and behaviours that students bring to design and those of the design and production partners they will potentially work with during their design career. Keywords: Asia, culture, attitudes, internationalization, curriculum.
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View more >Students starting their Product Design studies in Australia next year will be graduating into a very internationalised profession. Production has moved increasingly off shore, markets are increasingly global and collaborations are increasingly made across country boundaries. Higher Education programs have been responding slowly to these changes but a more fundamental shift in thinking is needed to redesign Product Design education for the realities of the new environment for Australian design graduates. Internationalisation of the curriculum cannot be limited to including examples of designs from other countries and giving students opportunities to take part in projects abroad, it needs to be extended so that students understand cultural difference. Understanding the reasons behind production values and behaviours in different cultures needs to be overt in the Australian Product Design curriculum, providing strategies for graduates joining companies that are finding themselves increasingly dependent on international relationships. Using the relationship of Australia with China as an example, this paper discusses the issues for Australian Product Design educators in identifying and exploring the culture based attitudes, design values and behaviours that students bring to design and those of the design and production partners they will potentially work with during their design career. Keywords: Asia, culture, attitudes, internationalization, curriculum.
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Conference Title
15th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education Conference
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Copyright Statement
© 2013 The Design Society. The attached file is reproduced here in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. For information about this conference please refer to the conference’s website or contact the author[s].
Subject
Visual arts not elsewhere classified