The second phase involved the development of a student project to be facilitated by design lecturers at both institutions using a Toolkit provided. The Toolkit is a comprehensive teaching and learning tool available for download from the Unequal Stories website. The resources in the Toolkit included a brief (project requirements, structure, and schedule), a series of four asynchronous theory lectures, and reading material. Due to the multidisciplinary nature of the project, the project brief and toolkit were designed to accommodate the needs, objectives, and learning outcomes of different modules, programmes, and disciplines. The four asynchronous lectures introduced the theories framing the project. Lecture one provided background and contextualisation of the project. Lecture two introduced students to existing research and statistics around gender and design. Lecture three introduced critical design thinking and the design approach of speculative design. Critical design is a design approach that fosters a multidisciplinary ethos to addressing and designing solutions for social issues. This approach underpinned the pedagogical activities and resources included in the toolkit. Lastly, lecture four provided an introduction and discussion of key concepts related to Afrofuturism12. The incorporation of Afrofuturism into the project Toolkit introduced inclusivity and representation to the discourse of gender in design disciplines outside of Western rhetoric and literature. The project brief tasked students to use ethnographic methodologies to deepen their understanding of gender equality and critically respond to their findings using critical design approaches, specifically speculative design or Afrofuturism. 12 Guest lecture video presented by Ms Florence Okoye 13 Mosley, A.M. & Bediako, K. 2021. Critical design futures: Challenging the gender data gap through pedagogy’. Design Education Forum of South Africa Title: DE+AFRIKA+4IR+ DESIGN EDUCATION/AFRIKA / 4TH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION DEFSA 16th Conference Proceedings, pp. 114–125. Available at: https://www. defsa.org.za/papers/critical-design-futures The Toolkit is a comprehensive teaching and learning tool available for download from the Unequal Stories website. Pilot Project (Postgraduate): 2020-21 To test the efficacy of the Toolkit, the project was facilitated in three design departments in the UK and South Africa in the form of a pilot project. In the UK, the project was facilitated with 13 MA Communication students over four weeks at the end of 2020. In South Africa, the project ran for four weeks in UJ’s Industrial Design Department with 11 BA Honours students, and for six weeks in the Fashion Design Department with eight Honours students in early 2021. The process and outcome of this pilot project are documented in a DEFSA paper13 and exhibited in the online gallery on the Unequal Stories Website. Following the critical design approach formulated by the Design Council, students explored the topic of gender in design by applying the Double Diamond approach, which divides research and design activities into four distinct phases: Discover, Define, Develop, and Deliver. These critical design outcomes were then shared and showcased via an online gallery, ultimately enabling discussion on design and gender inequality in the design disciplines from a cross-national perspective. Teaching Innovation for the 21st Century | Showcasing UJ Teaching Innovation Projects 2022 53
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