The acquisition of essential characteristics required for a contemporary graphic design career
In my eleven years of teaching graphic design at Tshwane University of Technology, I have come to realise that education is more than just teaching a student the fundamentals, techniques and new technologies, it is also about their personal development. I conducted this study...
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| Language: | en |
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University of Pretoria
2014
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/2263/32970 Schiller, S 2013, 'The acquisition of essential characteristics required for a contemporary graphic design career', PhD thesis, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd <http://hdl.handle.net/2263/32970> |
| Summary: | In my eleven years of teaching graphic design at Tshwane University of Technology, I have come to realise that education is
more
than
just
teaching
a
student
the
fundamentals,
techniques
and
new
technologies,
it
is
also
about
their
personal
development.
I
conducted
this
study
to
ensure
that
my
educational
practices
challenge
my
graphic
design
students
to
acquire
the
essential
characteristics
–
or
more
profoundly,
the
essential
human
qualities
-‐
required
for
a
contemporary
graphic
design
career
through
which
the
quality
of
life
for
all
will
be
enhanced.
The
study
is
a
participatory
action
research
study
involving
the
second
and
third
year
graphic
design
students
at
Tshwane
University
of
Technology.
It
involved
five
action
intervention
cycles.
In
the
first
cycle
I
explored
the
current
graphic
design
education
practices
in
order
to
determine
whether
these
practices
ensure
the
acquisition
of
such
essential
human
qualities
that
a
graphic
designer
should
posses.
The
acquisition
of
such
human
qualities
has
become
paramount
because
of
the
ethical
imperative
that
graphic
designers
can
change
the
world
(Berman,
2009).
I
found
that
my
current
graphic
design
education
practices
as
they
relate
to
the
commonly
most
dominant
practices
are
not
sufficient
to
accomplish
this
purpose.
During
the
research
I
was
exposed
to
a
paradigmatically
innovative
education
practice
that
focuses
on
maximizing
human
potential
and
it
was
adopted
to
improve
my
existing
education
practice.
Through
four
additional
action
intervention
cycles
I
provided
evidence
that
indicated
that
my
improved
education
practice
contributed
to
my students’
acquisition
of
an
identified
four
sets
of
essential
human
qualities:
the
artistic
quality
of
creativity;
the
professional
quality
of
continuous,
independent,
increasing
expertise
in
creativity
within
an
interdependent,
co-‐operative
value
based
community
of
graphic
design
practitioners;
the
personal
quality
of
maximizing
human
potential;
and
the
leadership
quality
of
an
enlightened
change
agent.
The
primary
focus
on
the acquisition
of
these
essential
human
qualities
through
the
proposed
method
of
graphic
design
education,
also
allows
for
the
gaining
of
the
necessary
graphic
design
knowledge
and
skills
(Barnett,
2007:101). === Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. === gm2013 === Humanities Education === Unrestricted |
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