The relationship between education and practice in any discipline is complex. In an ever changing world, it is also in flux. Today, educators in the liberal arts still identify learning as an end unto itself, and designers still draw on ideas about intuitive knowledge. By contrast, business calls for graduates armed with the skills required in industry from day one. At the same time they value creative thinking and continual adaptation. In industry, managers focus on a foundational baseline and engineers and scientists are seen as pragmatic problem solvers.
These alternative perspectives have been reflected in multiple changes to the practice and structure of the education. One such example was the Boyer-Mitgang report which restructured architectural education in the US to reflect other professions. As in other sectors, it resulted in a ‘degree arms race’, with MAs and doctoral programs multiplying more rapidly than the research and teaching methods they required. At the same time, the ‘widening participation’ agenda produced an explosion of research and funding for new pedagogical approaches and initiatives. Attempts to fuse education with industry and business through university led partnership schemes also proliferated. More recently, changes in the financing of the HE sector in places like the UK, mean universities now stress educational efficiency and guarantees of graduate jobs.
Working within this context, educators have developed new and innovative ways to teach, they have embedded participatory citizenship into their pedagogy, have forged unique partnerships across disciplines and outside the academy, and much more. However, research into best practice learning and teaching in the classroom is still evolving and educational initiatives can sometimes be seen as contradicting on-the-job realities in practice. The Education, Design and Practice conference explores this complex and contradictory scenario from multiple perspectives, seeking examples best practice teaching and critique.
Disciplines:
This conference deliberately seeks expertise from across multiple sectors.
It welcomes examples of current good practice across education sectors; calls for examples of innovative teaching and learning from different countries; and questions the role of academia in a broader economic framework.
It invites theorists in education and experts in pedagogy, scholars from the humanities, academics in the arts, and professionals from the social sciences. It seeks to construct a debate with practitioners from business and management. It welcomes policy makers concerned with the skills and knowledge needed by educators and practitioners. From specific disciplines it calls on academics from a multitude of sectors: educational leadership, psychology, sociology, art, design architecture, urbanism and landscape; engineering, construction, project management, health, media and communication and the sciences.
Themes:
Soliciting case studies, research projects and examinations of educational practice, conference tracks will reflect the diversity of issues now facing the future of education and practice in industry. Areas of interest reflect the diversity of issues proposed.
These may include but are not limited to:
Best practice pedagogy | Creative exploration in the design studio | Experiential learning in the classroom and the workplace | Knowledge exchange and innovation | Neoliberal frameworks of learning and professionalism | Competitive advantage in practice and pedagogy | Expertise and legitimacy for specialists and teachers | People and professionals in the built environment | Collaborative learning and working behaviors | Upskilling the Industry and the academy | Challenging norms through teaching and learning | Continuing education and lifelong learning
Organisers: This event is organized by Stevens Institute of Technology with the research organization AMPS.
Publications: The conference publications form part of an international publishing network PARADE involving Routledge, Taylor&Francis, Intellect Books, UCL Press, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Vernon Press and Libri Publishing.