Democratic design literacy research

Abstract

This paper presents ideas about education and democracy embedded in studies on design literacy for sustainability. The descriptions of one semi-structured group interview study and one action research study provided in three research papers are analysed in light of three different conceptions of education and democracy. The analysis outlines how the research methods used in situations in which students (1) engage in questions, introductions and tightly structured tasks developed from research-based knowledge; (2) interact with and share their thoughts and reflections in groups; and (3) respond to open-ended questions contribute to research enabling design education for democracy, design education through democracy and democratic design education, respectively. These results are of relevance to the development of both education and educational research concerning design literacy.