Design Is Not Neutral: A Feminist Approach to Design Pedagogy

The field of design is historically exclusionary. Design education has played a significant role in perpetuating these practices, focusing on formal design structures, design schools, and professional bodies. In response, my work employs a feminist and practice-based approach to develop a design pedagogy that challenges dominant ideologies in design education.

My intervention begins with a podcast, social media, and a website containing resources for design educators to create equitable pedagogy. The podcast, titled "Design is Not Neutral," features design educators who research gaps in design education and seek to deconstruct the binaries that have traditionally excluded subaltern forms of making from the design field. This podcast serves as a centralized source of resources for individual educators to incorporate feminist curricula into their classrooms.

The second phase of my intervention involves a knitting workshop that utilizes co/autoethnographic research to challenge power dynamics in design curricula. Through the use of personal narrative and reflection, participants engage in a critical examination of their own experiences with craft and design while also learning new techniques for creating with non-digital materials. By emphasizing alternative ways to initiate a design process and increasing agency for traditionally designated 'craft' practices, this workshop seeks to re-center subaltern forms of making in design education. This approach aligns with feminist scholars who emphasize the importance of 'design in the margins' and seeks to create a more inclusive and equitable design pedagogy that centers marginalized perspectives. Ultimately, this intervention leads to a more diverse, accessible, and empowering design education that challenges dominant patriarchal, Eurocentric, and heteronormative design education.