Re-visioning design priorities through sustainability education

Many commentators stress the need for a change in the values and practice of learning to enable society to respond to new, emerging questions that face the world today. Empowering people to ask the right questions should be a prime motive of education for sustainability as the learning outcomes of this will be key to delivering effective agendas - in this case for design - towards sustainability. This paper outlines a design for sustainability pedagogical approach that aims to explore the impact of design on sustainable development priorities. It explores ways in which design can be used as a lever for change towards sustainability by giving students the opportunity to consider very different design briefs. The paper will explore these issues using examples from an undergraduate course developed and taught by the authors