Professor of Graphic Design, MFA Graphic Design, Otis College Los Angeles
Date: May 21st
Discussed: experimental schools, critical pedagogical methods
Tanya Rubbak is a graphic designer, educator, and writer in Los Angeles. She is also a longtime friend and collaborator. In the course of a conversation, we discussed her experiences attending and teaching in Art/Design schools (MFA from CalArts, teaching at Otis College for 10 years). She made the observation that “most people who teach haven’t been taught how to teach,” since they are practising professionals.
Over the course of this conversation, it was solidified that the issues I am noticing while attending CSM are not only relevant to this school, or even just to the UK, but also in the US: the lack of support for teachers to teach in better ways, the lack of resources. We talked about different resources and strategies she has tried over the years. The only successful project that was aimed at educators was a now-defunct project called Workshop Projects, which was graphic design educators putting on workshops for other educators to experientially teach them pedagogical strategies.
It made me realize that teachers/tutors/staff are another stakeholder group who occupy an integral part of the power dynamic of fostering cross-disciplinary exchange and engaged pedagogy. There are very few resources available for them as well.
Resources investigated as a result of the conversation:
The Mountain School
The Southland Institute – LA
School for Poetic Computation – NY
https://www.are.na/june-sanders/intentional-teaching-effective-pedagogy
https://lovelanguages.melaniehoff.com/this-is-not-my-hand-its-a-cradle-made-of-avocado-pits/
School of Commons – Zurich University of the Arts
https://www.schoolofcommons.org/
Radical Education Forum – UK
Pupil Power
Tools for Better Thinking
https://thecreativeindependent.com/welcome/
Open CoLab – Plymouth State U