Design, critical pedagogy and supporting the student-led movement from within

Cook, Robyn ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4265-6716 (2017) Design, critical pedagogy and supporting the student-led movement from within. In: The Graphic Design Educators’ Network 2017 Conference, 7—8 September 2017, Sheffield Institute of the Arts, Sheffield Hallam University.

Abstract / Summary

In 2015 and 2016, South Africa witnessed an unprecedented allying of students, academics and University workers in demonstrations countrywide, ultimately bringing much of the higher education sector to a standstill. The co-ordinated protest action, which became known as the ‘Fees Must Fall’ movement, encompassed a broad range of concerns including: the unchecked rise of tuition fees; the ongoing corporatisation of public Universities; the outsourcing of University workers; and critically, the need for the decolonisation of various curricula.

Using the Fees Must Fall movement as a case study of student-led, academic-supported rebellion, this paper critically examines the pedagogical opportunities of revolt from ‘within’, and the associated design-led outcomes of projects from the University of Johannesburg’s Faculty of Art Design and Architecture.

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