A FRAMEWORK FOR INTEGRATING SDGS INTO UNIVERSAL DESIGN EDUCATION IN CHINA
Year: 2024
Editor: Grierson, Hilary; Bohemia, Erik; Buck, Lyndon
Author: Zhang, Ting; Zhang, Yanfang; Yuan, Shu
Series: E&PDE
Institution: Shanghai Dianji University; Kyushu University; Donghua University
Page(s): 300 - 305
DOI number: 10.35199/EPDE.2024.51
ISBN: 978-1-912254-200
ISSN: 3005-4753
Abstract
Integrating the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into design education and building up the knowledge base in this area is probably one of the most pressing tasks and challenges for Chinese design educators because of the increasingly serious issue of ageing, inequality, and environmental problems. Universal design, considered to be an effective tool for eliminating inequality and promoting social inclusiveness, is a good bridge for implementing SDGs into design education. It has the potential to help students appreciate user capabilities, needs, and expectations, and is increasingly important in mainstream design education. However, the adoption of SDGs in universal design education still meets with many barriers in China. This study focuses on these barriers and try to find out possible corresponding actions based on a series of universal design workshops since 2017 at Shanghai Dianji University organized by the authors. Many research methods have been utilized, such as literature review, expert interview, questionnaire, and case study. Many influencing factors have also been hypothesized and examined, including major, grade, real user participation, ice break, tea break, diversified places, teaching language, etc. Through quantitative and qualitative analysis, some key factors are focused and put into discussion. Finally, a preliminary conceptual framework is proposed to summary all the barriers and corresponding actions to better integrate SDGs into universal design education in China. Firstly, a literature review focused on SDGs and universal design education was carried out. Key books and papers on these areas are picked out. The practices and perspectives from different countries are synthesized. Compared with the barriers from the literature review, related to the authors’ experience as organizers of the universal design workshop, preliminary barriers of integrating SDGs into China’s universal design education were initiated then demonstrated to expert interview. Expert interview intended to get some perspectives and insights from interdisciplinary experts, especially from teaching administrators. Six experts were interviewed. Three experts are from design education and three are from teaching administration. Based on the perspectives from experts, four aspects of barriers were finally clarified, they are: lack of awareness; lack of resources; practical difficulties; financial and cultural factors. Corresponding response are initiated. Then, a case study of Shanghai Dianji University’s Universal Design workshop from 2017-2023 was conducted. Six key elements were filtered out within China’s talents cultivation system, namely education aim, educational standards, course system, syllabus, teaching method, and core courses. These elements are hierarchical and successional. The case study gives some inspirations for design education. Finally, a conceptual framework was triggered. The framework manages to accommodate all the key elements of China’s education system (identified in case study) accompany with the barriers (focused through expert interview), and actions (enlightened from literature review) to a hierarchical and successional “tree”. From top to bottom of the “tree”, the key education elements are arranged hierarchically. The framework suggests the likely route of integrating SDGs into China’s universal design education. It shows the possibility of potential application for design educators and SDGs practitioners.
Keywords: SDGs, universal design, design education, China