Abstract
Each year in the Australian state of Victoria, approximately 12,000 senior secondary school students enrol in the subject of Visual Communication Design, its curriculum unique to Victorian schools and liberating design from its popular pairings with Visual Arts or Technology Studies. However, as a learning area offered under the umbrella of The Arts, Visual Communication Design is predominantly delivered by Visual Arts specialists, who may or may not have been exposed to understandings of design in their previous studies or teacher training. In fact, only one Victorian tertiary institution specifically prepares teachers of Visual Communication Design, with all others embedding design pedagogical training in Visual Arts pre-service teacher education programs. Of interest then, is the nature and extent of Victorian design teacher training when merged with art teacher education, and most significantly, the role of the teacher educator in shaping conceptions of best practice design pedagogy. In a recent small but vital study, qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with three Visual Arts & Design teacher educators, each who shared an appreciation of design as a distinct formal language, but rejected the notion of explicitly teaching design pedagogical content knowledge as a component of their teacher education programs. This paper summarises the research and its findings, illuminating important local issues and deficits that are of relevance to the wider world of design teacher education.
Presenters
Emma Kate RickardsLecturer and Clinical Teaching Specialist, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Design Pedagogy, Teacher Education, Visual Arts and Design, Secondary Schools
