Amplifying Learners’ Voices through the Global Studio

Constructing autobiographical practices aids individuals gain and maintain employability status in the professional working environment. Learning how to tell appropriate stories about oneself is central in advancing such presentations of self. Consequently, the authors argue design students should learn to tell their own stories to aid their transition into professional practice. Though it has tangible and important benefits for students in terms of aspects such as the acquisition of practical skills, this chapter argues that the commonly utilised master-apprentice model may not be optimally effective in aiding students to tell their own stories. Consequently, it may not be optimally attuned to enabling future design graduates the necessary reflexivity to be able to negotiate the increasingly complex world of the contemporary knowledge economy. The Global Studio aims to propagate a student-led pedagogic model in which tutors purposefully try to remain relatively distant in teaching & learning activities and students construct conversations and outcomes primarily via interaction with peers. Qualitative student feedback suggests that this model has enabled learners to tell their own stories. However, feedback also suggests that many learners are not comfortable with the fact that tutors remain relatively distant in the Global Studio system. Notes from the Global Studio suggest that there is still much work to do in achieving an optimally balanced design education model.