Conference Agenda

Design education is increasingly tasked with responding to complex global challenges, yet innovative pedagogies are often stifled by institutionalisms: rigid assessment frameworks, "bums on seats" metrics, industry-facing reactions while also meeting the expectations of parents and funded research agendas. While educators are experimenting with new forms of learning, critical lenses like ‘ungrading’ and integrating cross-discipline, participation-based activities within coursework these efforts often remain isolated.

This DRS Conversation explores the potential of ‘riskiness’ as a core pedagogical value. We define riskiness not as recklessness, but as a purposeful opening to uncertainty, failure, improvisation with the result being resilience and confidence. This takes education beyond the responsibility of the institution to create employable graduates towards a position that accepts accountability for learning (for all those involved); new knowledge created through risky experiences. This session invites participant design educators to move beyond the ‘safe’ status quo and collectively imagine how design education can become a site of systemic friction and transformative learning for the student but also the educator.