Design and Education

Design is a versatile field of knowledge and practice whose methods and areas of application play a decisive role in shaping the relationship between people and things amid processes of social, technological, ecological, and global transformation and justice.

The teacher training program Design and Education builds on the profound changes occurring in contemporary design, production, and consumption processes. The focus lies on design, technology, fashion, styles, textiles, architecture, space, and popular and youth culture. Technology is understood here as an integral part of a holistic understanding of design – ranging from materials and production processes to technologies, media, and digitality, through to production, use, and appropriation.

The program is based on hands-on instruction in the institute's well-equipped workshops: wood, metal, ceramics, fashion, textiles, screen printing, leather, paper, digital production, photo studio, surface design, mold-making, and risography. Here, students concentrate on individual areas of interest within a broad spectrum of practices, procedures, and technologies, learning about materials and tools as well as methods and processes and their significance for contemporary design practices. They gain experience working with analog, digital, and hybrid design processes, production tools, and manufacturing methods.

A further distinctive feature of the program is its research-based, experimental studios, offering project studies on a wide range of topics in design, technology, fashion, styles, textiles, architecture, space, and popular and youth culture. Theories and methods from design and fashion studies, current discourses on technology and architecture, as well as approaches from cultural studies and gender and queer studies, are also anchored in the curriculum.

Supervision in small groups enables intensive exchange in courses.

The teacher training program Design and Education qualifies graduates to teach the subject Technik und Design at the secondary level. The aim of the program is to develop a well-founded design practice and reflective design knowledge. These form the basis for competent, socially responsible teaching and learning – both in working with pupils and with individuals and groups in various social contexts.

The program includes the study area Educational Science (BiWi) at the Institute for the Education in the Arts as its educational science foundation.

Building on the teacher training programs Design and Education as well as Art and Education, the Institute for the Education in the Arts offers consecutive master's programs.

Faculty Design and Context