Case study - Golborne High School
School context (brief overview):
Golborne High School is a non-selective, mixed gender Foundation Secondary school situated in Warrington.
After completing my teacher training at Cambridge University I joined the Design & Technology department at Golborne High School. Like many D&T departments across the UK, it faced challenges with teacher recruitment, retention and lack of understanding as to the value of D&T learning opportunities. As an enthusiastic advocate for interdisciplinary design thinking, I was determined to shape the department to deliver highly engaging theoretical and practical learning opportunities to ignite students' critical, empathetic and inquisitive minds.
One notable project that I introduced, developed from my dissertation at Cambridge, invites our students to consider ‘empathy and emotional intelligence’ as key skills required by designers. Buehring and Moore (2018, p. 9) describe emotional intelligence in design as a ‘magic key’ for innovation. They argue that it is crucial for designers striving to create inclusive solutions that address the needs of all individuals equally. They also note that increasingly pressing challenges of the 21st Century, including concerns of poverty, the preservation of the environment and physical accessibility, have brought designers into a new role, as arbiters of the quality of life, with ‘humanism’ in design more crucial than ever. My interpretation of this was to develop a project that introduces students to engage with the concept of “hostile design” (Knight, 2020) - also known as “defensive architecture” - which often excludes specific groups and behaviours and consequently is criticised by disability advocates, homeless charities and those who have experienced or are experiencing homelessness.
Design activities focused on hostile spaces and designs, requiring pupils to analyse, evaluate, and synthesise complex ideas, concepts, and perspectives. Through thoughtful questioning discussion-based activities, identifying emotions and analysis of different users’ needs and wants, students developed their understanding of the complexity of homelessness and empathy towards those who experience homelessness. Students created physical resolutions in response to their learning and perspective of hostile design, creating either solutions that could raise awareness of the complexity of hostile design or prototyping more socially sustainable pieces of architecture. The resolutions could either be a drawing or a prototyped model.
Figure 1 below presents examples of students’ work who responded to the design challenge by creating a graphic design poster alongside explanations of their work. (click image to enlarge)
Figure 2 presents examples of students’ work who responded to the design challenge by creating a prototype bench design alongside explanations of their work.
Challenges and successes:
From my perspective, introducing the Hostile Design project as a gateway to enhancing students' emotional intelligence is rewarding. With each new cohort of students, I observe a development in sensitivity—both in my own approach to the subject matter and in the students themselves. As the designed activities encourage them to discuss their feelings and thoughts, students begin to display greater societal awareness and empathy. This process continually refines my ability to articulate these complex issues, while fostering an emotionally intelligent classroom environment. It is encouraging to observe students express their emotions to one another and receive emotions with maturity and an open mind.
Whilst I recognise that this small-scale project in the North West and I cannot make any widespread assertations as to its success and impact, it provides exciting and evolving insights into how we can foster emotional intelligence within Design and Technology classrooms to support that protect the quality of life for all members of society.
References
Buehring, J.H. and Moore, P., 2018. Emotional and social intelligence as ‘magic key’in innovation: A designer’s call toward inclusivity for all. Journal of Innovation Management, 6(2), pp.6-12.
Knight, B. 2020, Defensive architecture: design at its most hostile, UNSW Newsroom, viewed 18 November 2024, https://www.unsw.edu.au/newsroom/news/2020/08/defensive-architecture-design-its-most-hostile
