Book chapter
Curriculum: challenges, opportunities, and approaches to increasing sustainability content in fashion and textiles education
Accelerating Sustainability in Fashion, Clothing and Textiles, pp 315-330
2024
Abstract
Baeza, Quinn, and Corcoran highlight that one of the main challenges for fashion and textiles education is having the courage to explore different ways of thinking and making beyond irresponsible industrial systems. As design practices shift, awareness of ethical and ecological implications has become a necessity and responsibility not only for design professionals but also for educators who are teaching the next generation. Truly sustainable collections must carefully analyse the design phase in the produce life cycle for positive impacts. Design and merchandising curricula may skim the surface of ethical practices, which consider a high level of care and awareness for the creation/making process, but often fall short on aligning ethical decision-making with design processes and business practices. Prioritising a protective and holistic material strategy could help develop a pathway towards a sustainable system collectively beneficial to all. Curriculum needs to be agile and have the ability and resources to recognise and protect good design practice, skill, and knowledge while incubating future design thinking, experiential making, and new business models, with ethics and sustainability at the core. Redefining our value system in relation to design, creation, and production by integrating ethics, entrepreneurship, and restorative design into curricula will create more transformative, sustainable, and adaptive industry professionals.
This chapter highlights that one of the main challenges for fashion and textiles education is having the courage to explore different ways of thinking and making beyond irresponsible industrial systems. Responding to environmental degradation students sourced industrial waste and non-recyclable plastics, and prototyped innovative material approaches towards resource second life. The success of the nutritive materials project reinforced our belief that working with and for nature, to create biodegradable natural material hybrids was an important part of the solution for future material development. Material innovations that make use of bio-based components and naturally regenerative resources could help put the fashion industry on a path to a more synergistic production model. Curriculum needs to be agile and have the ability and resources to recognise and protect good design practice, skill, and knowledge while incubating future design thinking, experiential making, and new business models, with ethics and sustainability at the core.
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Details
- Title
- Curriculum: challenges, opportunities, and approaches to increasing sustainability content in fashion and textiles education
- Creators
- Christine Baeza - Drexel UniversitySamantha Corcoran - University College DublinElizabeth S. Quinn - Albright College
- Contributors
- Martin Charter (Editor)Bernice Pan (Editor)Sandy Black (Editor)
- Publication Details
- Accelerating Sustainability in Fashion, Clothing and Textiles, pp 315-330
- Publisher
- Routledge
- Edition
- 1
- Resource Type
- Book chapter
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Design and Merchandising; Design
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85170478365
- Other Identifier
- 991021897403604721