A sage expression, you make the road by walking, captures the nature of accompaniment in partnership development. The purpose of this action research project was to examine the partnership of a city school and an urban university as one that engaged mutual generation of knowledge from all participants. Action research, where participants are co-equals in decision-making, enhances the co-construction of knowledge and applied practice when stakeholders work to achieve more practical goals. Two high school co-instructors and a university faculty member examined what initially brought them together – a classroom instructional need. While designing and implementing an investigation of the use of class instructional time, they simultaneously conducted a self-study action research project about the dynamics of their partnership and how to improve it. Critical interviews revealed challenges to integrating research findings into practice as well as convergent benefits of partnership development that may be relevant to partnerships of all kinds.
Key Terms: Action research, collaboration, collaborative organizations, mode 2 knowledge creation, partnership development, research-practice gap
How do arts-based writing endeavors catalyze generative thinking and support research development in design students’ thesis endeavors? This paper offers reflections from an industrial design masters student, a graphic design masters student, and their arts education professor in a School of Design at a Research I institution. Informed by theoretical and historical contexts of the design discipline and perspectives from composition studies and fine arts practice, we explore the potential of arts-based writing as an evocative, speculative tool and a distinctive form of reflective practice for the development of graduate design research. We suggest that arts-based writing’s iterative process, dialogic engagement, and speculative approach to knowledge-construction provide critical, reflective structures for working through uncertainties and thus are uniquely responsive to the evolving epistemologies of the transdisciplinary university. Three focal questions guide this reflection: What is arts-based writing? What role does arts-based writing play in students’ design research endeavors? How can arts-based writing practices support the growth of speculative and pragmatic design research?
Lloyd C. Engelbrecht (born 1927) is Professor Emeritus of Art History at the University of Cincinnati. His article, “Wood, Plywood and Veneer, Cranbrook, the New Bauhaus and the W. P. A.: the Origins of the Eames Chair of 1946,” had its origins in a paper presented at a symposium, “Bauhaus, New Bauhaus, W. P. A.: Chairs for Mid-Century,” October 17, 1981, at the Mid-America Conference of the College Art Association, meeting in Milwaukee. The article was expanded and eventually completed in 1987, but it was never published. The author asked that his late wife, June-Marie F. Engelbrecht (1930-2009), be given credit for her immense amount of help with the research and writing of the article.
As the Next Generation Science Standards make clear, equity must be a priority in today’s science classrooms. This means ensuring that all students, regardless of race, gender, and economic or linguistic background, develop positive science-linked identities that allow them to access, evaluate, challenge, and even generate scientific knowledge. Yet, developing positive science-linked identities can be problematic for students who perceive science to be in conflict with other aspects of their identities, such as gender, ethnicity, or economic class. Thus prioritizing equity indicates the need to provide experiences that help all students—and especially those who are historically underrepresented in science—forge positive science-linked identities. This article draws on a yearlong case study conducted in collaboration with a middle grade (5-8) science teacher at an all-female school serving primarily students of color from working class families. Analysis of data, including observations of 102 classes and student interviews and surveys, revealed four promising strategies relevant to all middle school science teachers: (a.) Prioritize communication in science, (b.) Position all students as scientists, (c.) Allow students to be science authorities, and (d.) Demonstrate that science actually matters.
The ethical dimensions of basing a typeface on existing faces are unclear. Commentary about “clones” from critics and type designers alike are confused and contradictory. Few writers consider the issues systematically. Misunderstanding of copyright law and unreflective versions of moral rights claims dominate discussion. Open discussion of the models for a type design avoid claims of plagiarism and also affect the reception of the new typeface.
IASDR 2017 Guest Speaker
Meredith Davis has taught for forty-seven years and served as head of the Department of Graphic Design, Director of Graduate Programs in Graphic Design, and Director of the PhD Design program at NC State University. She is an AIGA fellow and national medalist, Alexander Quarles Holladay Medalist for Teaching Excellence, and fellow and former member of the accreditation commission of the National Association of Schools of Art and Design, for which she drafted the national standards for the evaluation of college-level design programs. She serves as a member of the education advisory committee of the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian National Design Museum and is a former president of the American Center for Design. Meredith is a frequent author–including four books on design and design education– and serves on the editorial boards of She Ji and Design Issues. Her research includes a two-year study of design-based teaching and learning for the National Endowment for the Arts, which received a CHOICE award from the National Association of College and Research Libraries.
She has served on the development teams for two National Assessments of Educational Progress, most recently for the scenario-based evaluation of 21,500 students in Technology and Engineering Design Literacy. She authored a five-year research study of teaching critical and creative thinking across the college curriculum, featured in a study by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development on the effectiveness of higher education in preparing students for innovation jobs. She has reviewed proposals for the Smithsonian Office of Education and Museum Studies, National Science Foundation, US Department of Education, Institute of Museum and Library Services, and Canadian Foundation for Innovation, and her work has been funded by the Kenan Institute for Engineering, Science and Technology; National Endowment for the Arts; Worldesign Foundation; and several state commissions.
