2019 IIDA Educators Roundtable Report

IIDA recently released its 2019 IIDA Educators Roundtable Report – a report put together post-gathering of a roundtable of industry educators and practitioners intending to empower the design profession through meaningful dialogue about how we educate and foster the talents of design students and emerging designers.

The 2019 edition of the IIDA Educators Roundtable was hosted by Milliken at its Roger Milliken Campus in Spartanburg, South Carolina, as a two-day event in March 2019. The report is succinct and contains valuable insights about the challenges faced by the architecture and design field

The 2019 IIDA Educators Roundtable participants

A key takeaway from the report is that the demographics of design students and emerging designers is changing – scratch that, has already changed drastically – and the next generation of designers will be much more diverse than prior ones.

From the report: “In terms of demographics, today’s interior design students differ dramatically from students of past decades, who have typically been young, white, middle-class, and American. From coast to coast, schools today report extraordinary diversity within their student populations, which increasingly comprise international, first-generation, and older second-career or otherwise non-traditional students.”

“For example, according to the representative educators that attended this roundtable from each school, the interior design programs at Pratt Institute in New York and California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco boast large international populations, with roughly 75% of students at both schools hailing from Asian countries – primarily China, but also Korea, India, and Taiwan as well as Latin and South America and Europe. At Texas Tech University (TTU) in Lubbock, Texas, international students, mainly from Iran, make up approximately 60% of the graduate interior design student body. First generation college students comprise 42% of those studying interior design at Western Carolina University (WCU) in Cullowhee, North Carolina, and 25% of students at University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). Likewise, a 2017 IIDA Student Member survey logged 28% of respondents as embarking on their second career. The high numbers of international, first-generation, and non-traditional students reveal that, for interior design programs, there is no longer a “standard” student type. Yet, while diversity abounds, many schools still proceed as though their students arrive with a shared baseline of culture, language, and life experience, as was expected of the more homogenous student populations of years past.”

During the roundtable, educators noted that a major issue at all levels, from the institution to the department and classroom, is a lack of adequate and clear communication.

“For example, at Pratt Institute, where about three-quarters of the interior design students are from Asian countries, the faculty has not had meaningful discussions on the ramifications of teaching primarily foreign students who are not likely to stay in this country long after graduating, according to Jon Otis, IIDA, who is a professor of practice at Pratt, founder and principal of the multidisciplinary design studio Object Agency (OlA), and currently a vice president on the IIDA International Board of Directors. Schools need to initiate conversations across and within departments about demographic shifts and the resulting impacts, for both the students and the institutions themselves.”

In addition to more robust and effective programs to support international students, we must “rethink the classroom” by creating a common foundation and common language that all students, including international students, can work from.

Photography and images: courtesy of IIDA / Lower right photograph: courtesy of Texas Tech University

The diversity in our students must also be mirrored by our school faculties. Right now, the composition of interior design faculty doesn’t match the diversity of the student populations they teach.

“A concentrated effort must be made across interior design programs to hire ethnically and culturally diverse educators, especially those who mirror institutions’ individual demographics. ‘Something we actively discuss when hiring faculty is finding relevant role models for the student body, and making sure that we have a diverse faculty make up and output,’ says Amy Campos, IIDA. ‘That means we consider applicants’ personal profiles as well as the types of work that they do and the way that they teach in the classroom.’ It can be difficult for students to find role models – people who look like them, share their background, and to whom they can relate – and increasing faculty diversity will no doubt help address this issue.”

This more global mindset should also extend to school curriculums, but in many cases A&D programs struggle to achieve that.

“In general, interior design education privileges a Western view, focused on typically white European and American designers. ‘In today’s world, we are multicultural and yet we teach design as if it is not,’ said Otis. ‘We must begin to acknowledge that a view of design through a homogenous Western lens is a narrow and somewhat elitist perspective. Many educators acknowledge that the academic pedagogy has remained fairly consistent in its exclusivity, save for the introduction of new technology and sustainability concerns. When the content of our studio and theory courses changes to include non-Western references and ideology, then we’ll be more accurately addressing the cultural diversity of the current student population.’”

“Otis’s point – that educators must consciously incorporate non-Western content into courses – raises the related difficulty of how this material is introduced to students. When educators reach beyond the usual canon to include work from Asia, Africa, or South America, for example, the non-Western content is often presented as “other,” not by virtue of ill intent, but by being tacked on to the “normal” lessons. At the heart of this problem is a simple fact: educators recognize the value of offering a more global perspective, yet to do so they must often teach unfamiliar content. Some educators embark on self-learning jaunts, but for most, this can be a daunting and time-consuming task.”

“In the past decade, architectural history professors addressed a similar challenge by forming the Global Architectural History Teaching Collaborative (GAHTC). Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and connected with MIT University, the GAHTC boasts a clear mission: “to provide cross-disciplinary, teacher-to-teacher exchanges of ideas and material, in order to energize and promote the teaching of all periods of global architectural history.” To accomplish this, GAHTC members – mainly architectural history professors – create and share, free of cost, teaching material that covers non-Western subjects. This organization offers a model for how interior design educators could work together to overcome the difficulties associated with expanding their curricula’s global breadth.”

“Another way to cultivate a global mindset in the classroom involves the students themselves. Educators can encourage students to share their cultures and interests, allowing their colleagues exposure to different beliefs and aesthetics. This can be accomplished in more formal ways, including project assignments that ask students to elaborate on elements of their backgrounds, or in a less structured fashion, such as open conversations. The ability to express one’s unique qualities and appreciate others’ singular contributions will prove endlessly beneficial for students as they transition to the workplace and regularly interact with other designers, clients, and consultants.”

Shifting gears, the roundtable also addressed the needs and wants of architecture and design firms hiring young designers. Emotional intelligence – and other soft skills such as self-awareness and social awareness, being able to cultivate relationships with others, and being able to manage emotions, are at the very top of the list.

“’Emotional intelligence is absolutely critical, especially for today’s early career professionals, who by virtue of their generation spend much of their time on social media,’ said Darris James, director of strategic projects at Gensler and a senior associate at the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. ‘The ability to cultivate relationships with people, have some level of self-awareness and social awareness, and be able to manage emotions and relationships are fundamental skills designers must learn before they go into the workforce.’”

“’Design is a team sport. Other than your projects in school, you will never be designing by yourself. Even if you have your own design firm, you are going to be working with clients. You are going to be working with consultants. You are going to be working with other people.” To familiarize students with collaborative interactions, educators build team projects into their courses, often despite students’ preference to work alone. Forward-thinking educators recognize that, for emerging designers, learning to navigate group dynamics is critically important for success.’”

The roundtable also noted the growing importance of research and evidence-based design. And as research-based design becomes a bigger priority, we must educate interior design students on how to engage with design research, how to use it in their projects, and how to explain it to their clients.

Concluding the report was a view of what tomorrow’s educators look like, and the architecture and design field faces a big challenge there. According to the roundtable, there is a current shortage of well-qualified educators, and the shortage will grow worse in the next 10-15 years.

“Two distinct elements contribute to this issue. First, as established educators reach retirement age, there are fewer mid-career candidates available to fill these voids. Second, due to the recent decrease in U.S. birthrates, many colleges will suffer at least a 15 percent decrease in enrollment beginning in the mid-2020s, according to recent demographic studies. Despite the current influx of international students, a decline of student totals overall, and ultimately fewer emerging designers, is expected with a resulting reduced pool of possible design educators.”

“To counter this pending shortage of educators, students must be exposed to design education as a viable career path. Educators can share their stories about how they came to teach and consciously mentor students who show an aptitude for teaching. Firm leaders can encourage educators/practitioners by making allowances for time spent away from the office in educational settings. This flexibility supports the practice of teaching, forges connections between firms and design schools, and signals that the profession as a whole values education and the advances that it brings.”

The full report can be found here.

The 2019 IIDA Educators Roundtable Report was written by Krista Sykes, a writer and editor with a background in architecture and design who has worked with many practitioners, institutions, and publications.