The Heterogeneity of Industrial Design Higher Education
Editor: Buck, Lyndon; Grierson, Hilary; Bohemia, Erik
Author: Hagins, Carly; Bush, Benjamin; Paepcke-Hjeltness, Verena
Institution: Western Michigan University, United States of America. Auburn University, United States of America. Iowa State University, United States of America
In 2021, three professors began to ask the question: If diversity benefits the design profession, and the design profession is fed by design schools, how diverse are the faculty who educate the designers of the near future? Furthermore, the team hypothesized that representation of diversity amongst faculty might support increased diversity amongst design students. Recognizing the complete lack of published demographic data focused on industrial design educators, the research team crafted an “educational design census” that has now completed two rounds of data collection.
The first round of data collection revealed unexpected patterns in the career path of design educators. Women were much more likely than their male counterparts to have taught at multiple universities, and men were much more likely to be employed by their degree-granting institution. The second round of data collection includes a much larger sample as well as six qualitative interviews.
The findings from the second round reveal insightful information concerning tenure-based and non tenure-based career pathways and the movement of faculty between public and private universities. This data confirms there is a lack of faculty diversity in industrial design and suggests diverse faculty may encounter more career obstacles than their white, male peers. This demonstrates a clear need to create a list of best practices to support increasing diversity within the industrial design profession.