Design Interest Group (DIG) Column: Summer 2023

DIG and What Is Coming Next!

Please let us introduce ourselves as the new chairs for DIG.

Kristen LaJeunesse Roach, Lake Zurich, IL
High School Art + Design Educator, and IAEA DIG Co-Chair
I am deeply engaged in teaching the design process, as it reflects what I have always believed: A teacher is a designer of learning experiences, new and better solutions are possible, and student designers can make them happen. I collaborate on my district’s Innovation + Pathways initiative and cowrote a future-forward elective course grounded in design thinking.

Robin Vande Zande, professor and coordinator of art and design education at Kent State University
I have been a proponent of teaching design for nearly 20 years, having published on the topic, been a past chair of DIG, a member on the education committees of National Building Museum and Fallingwater, and chair of three international conferences on design education. I also hold the position of the higher education representative on the NAEA Research Commission.

We are excited to join you in this new capacity. For the next 2 years, we intend to work toward completing these goals; we would appreciate any ideas you have about helping us accomplish these goals.

• Collect model design lessons from our DIG members to include in a coedited book on strategies for teaching design,
• Provide some examples from the coedited book as a resource for the NAEA membership to show approaches for teaching design.
• Build our DIG membership and provide networking events, virtual or in person.
• Continue to streamline communication with DIG members.
• Continue to leverage collaboration efforts with NAEA Interest Groups.
• Revisit the work of a seminal symposium held in 2019 in Florence, Italy, titled Re-Designing Education to Shape a Better World, and analyze the participants’ predications for improving education to define ways design educators may take in a central role in those changes.

As design-based educators, we know the benefits of collaboration. We have seen proof that when people collaborate, the final product is more creative, effective, and enriched from a diversity of perspectives. In our effort to accomplish the goals we outlined, we encourage all DIG members to select one or more of these goals in which to actively participate. We will contact you in the near future to gauge your interest.

Our heartfelt thank-you to Cindy Todd for leading DIG during the past 2 years. She has done an amazing job. We are lucky to have her as the incoming NAEA President.

We welcome hearing from you: Robin, rvandeza@kent.edu; Kristen, kristen.lajeunesse@lz95.org

Column by:

Kristen LaJeunesse Roach, DIG Co-Chair. High School Art + Design Educator, Lake Zurich, IL. Email: kristen.lajeunesse@lz95.org

Robin Vande Zande, Dig Co-Chair. Professor and Coordinator of Art and Design Education, Kent State University. Email: rvandeza@kent.edu