The new look: transforming sustainable fashion education
Creators: name: Sala, Kate
Publisher: name: RMIT University
Year: 2024
Subjects: classificationCode: 330315
subject: Textile and fashion design

description: This research examines transformative learning theory's impact for fashion education. Through a study of current learning and teaching practices employed by educators within the field of fashion education for sustainability, this research finds that transformative teaching strategies can contribute to the effectiveness of students understanding of sustainable fashion. Additionally, this research illustrates how promoting the use of these learning and teaching methods will support opportunities for students to grow through critical reflection and collaboration, with an emphasis on participation and collective inquiry; strategies supported through a mutual and dynamic learning environment.<br><br>The fashion and textile industries provide work to one in six people globally (Morgan, 2015). Considering the fashion industry's global influence, this field has become a popular career choice for many young graduates (Jenkyn-Jones, 2011). According to Jenkyn-Jones fashion design is one of the most oversubscribed fields in higher education (2011, p. 6). In light of this growth in popularity, fashion institutions are left to manage student preconceptions of the fashion industry; at times these are uninitiated ideas propagated by fashion media and brands who promote the notion of the celebrity fashion designer, working in isolation, relatively free of social responsibility (Jenkyn-Jones, 2015; Edelkoort, 2014).<br><br>In contrast to these widely promoted ideas of how the fashion industry operates, a fashion education aims to develop the skills required of a student in order to gain employment in the industry, both present and future, and in doing so, highlight the diverse functions and applications of fashion design practices. In addition to these skills, a fashion education is also an ideal environment to engage with specific learning and teaching strategies that will help facilitate student discussion and learning of issues associated with the influential choices fashion designers make, and how these choices impact our local and global communities.<br><br>Through this research, it has become evident that neither education theory (transformative learning theory) nor design theory (studio practice) has given adequate consideration to the advancement of appropriate learning and teaching methods to enable fashion to respond to the social and environmental challenges of the future. Literature on fashion education for sustainability is abundant, as is research exploring the application of transformative learning theory in disciplines outside of fashion. What is yet to be addressed through current literature are the distinct needs, as well as issues, arguing for the advancement and development of learning and teaching practice specific to fashion design education. This research contributes to a greater understanding of contemporary education practice within fashion design through an analysis of discipline-specific application of transformative learning theory to fashion pedagogy.<br><br>An analysis of current literature indicates that transformative learning theory appears to be the main driver for change when delivering content regarding sustainability at a tertiary level within similar design disciplines such as architectural education. Data gathered from multiple methods for this research reveals a correlation between best teaching practice for education for sustainability and transformative teaching strategies.<br><br>The literature review is organised into four areas of inquiry: sustainability, fashion design and the nature of change; the evolving forms of fashion design education; the fashion educator and the future; and transformative learning theory in higher education. Additionally a review of a select number of international fashion programmes offering fashion education for sustainability has been included. The research from this last section feeds into the development of a comparative study, from which key subsequent findings evolved. The aim of the comparative study was to identify existing trends in international pedagogical innovation and to establish a connection between these trends and transformative learning teaching practice in a tertiary fashion education setting.<br><br>A number of different approaches have been taken to complete this research, these include: a literature review, a range of semi-structured interviews and online surveys, a comparative study of fashion design teaching methods, as well as the development of strategies for transformative fashion teaching practice. In addition to identifying and analysing best-practice teaching for fashion sustainability, the findings of this research are geared towards equipping students and educators alike with the tools to critically reflect upon, and work towards, ethical and responsive possibilities for transformation in their own fashion teaching and learning practices.<br><br>The results from the semi-structured interviews and online surveys, combined with written reflection based on observation and literature research, formed the foundation for the comparative study of four leading international undergraduate fashion design courses. The key educators interviewed regarding their involvement in delivering these courses, are globally renowned for their contributions to sustainable fashion theory and practice, and thus are in a position to provide valuable insight from which comparative findings have been established. A key discovery from this process identified that the learning and teaching methods employed by these educators reflected an approach to teaching that correlates with the application of transformative learning theory. In addition, several students who participated in these courses took part in an anonymous online survey, from which an understanding of how these courses compared, in regard to student experience, was attained.<br><br>The comparative study within this research demonstrated how integrating transformative learning theory and its associated teaching strategies with more common and traditional practices of fashion education, developed an environment that enabled student designers to critically reflect on sustainable methods for fashion design practice. This research seeks to ground this theoretical and practical ambition in the realities of fashion education practices and the systems of tertiary higher education institutions, while unpacking the possibilities that lie in the adaption of the theory to fashion teaching practice, in preparation for a transformation of current realities.