Out of Time: Design Education, A student’s perspective of sustainability and practice

Initial research conducted evidenced that Communication Design students are eager to integrate practices around sustainable development within their studies. However, they struggle to contextualise and incorporate this desire in real terms, their focus often being pulled toward assignments and module completion and the ‘deadline’. As a result, sustainability either becomes a secondary focus or students seek immediate, surface level solutions (paper waste), failing to conceptualise a consistent understanding and application of consideration throughout their work.
This research also demonstrated a drive to engage, but one met by a need for educators to align issues more concretely to their studies. Curriculum planning must echo this with delivery of relevant support at opportune moments, to reinforce sustainable practice.
This paper summarises engagement with these original findings as part of pedagogical delivery, with the integration of a 'sustainability focused reflective cycle' into teaching. This multifaceted, milestone approach, combined delivery of relevant information at timely development stages, alongside the introduction of sustainable methodological approaches to practice, summarising this focus as part of reflective assessment. Survey data was collected during this process, the results of which, when considered against an analysis of student submissions, evidenced that students considered their potential impact more deeply, meaningfully, and consistently.