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Back to ArchiveFashionSEEDS Learning Activity Tool
2020
FashionSEEDS is an open-source platform that provides a tutor's toolkit and other resources for developing curriculum, courses and teaching in fashion sustainability for higher education institutions.
Behind the platform is a three-year-long period of research, reflection, and co-design in the FashionSEEDS collaborative network comprised of four European fashion universities (Politecnico di Milano, University of the Arts London, Estonian Academy of the Arts, and Design School Kolding) who set out to explore what a transformed education system in Fashion Design for Sustainability could look like. The name FashionSEEDS stands for Fashion Societal, Economic & Environmental Design-led Sustainability which explains the focus of the work.
In the light of climate transformation, the fashion and textile industry face a paradigm shift, which means that education is also facing a major transformation. To understand the complexities of sustainability in the fashion and textile industry can be overwhelming for design students. The students show curiosity to learn about design and sustainability, however, frustration can arise in the clash between acquiring knowledge about the industry, at the same time as the same industry itself is changing, and the students are faced with knowledge about sustainable issues. This can be expressed as barriers where the students have difficulty understanding their role and how their skills can be brought into play. The paradigm shift that the industry is facing challenges the students to see their professional discipline from a completely new perspective. Likewise, tutors in fashion design are challenged to grasp new knowledge within the field while teaching the subject.
In exploring and designing the open-source learning repository the FashionSEEDS network aimed to support teaching at higher education institutions by creating a tutor's toolkit and other resources for developing curriculum, courses and teaching in fashion sustainability. One of the resources on the platform, The Learning Activity Tool, was designed by Louise Ravnløkke and Karen Marie Hasling to support tutors in their existing courses or to be used as inspiration for building new course content within different topics.
The FashionSEEDs Learning Activity Tool consists of 25 learning activities that have been designed to supplement teaching in fashion design for sustainability. The collection of activities provides a repertoire designed for tutors to use in planning teaching. Each activity is developed with the intention of a scalable format where the progression of the activity can be adjusted to the time available, as well as the level of education. For example, in the learning activity ‘Wardrobe stories’ students can start by studying their own wardrobes, and go on to increase the level of complexity, by studying other users’ wardrobes, in order to understand different age groups, preferences, needs and wants.
Whilst each activity can be used as a stand-alone tool, they can also be combined within specific themes and for specific teaching contexts. Each activity is developed with the intention of a scalable format where the progression can be adjusted to the time available as well as the level of education. Does the course for example address an issue that is on the horizon or one that is in the distant future? This opens for a discussion of when a design solution is relevant to and answers present issues within sustainable development, or when it addresses a desired change in a future scenario.
Consequently, the activities serve to establish new ways to approach design and sustainability and to give the design student / designer a voice when reaching out to other professionals, whether it is within the fashion supply chain of designing collections, concepts and strategies, or as policymakers.
The FashionSEEDS collaborative network has been co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union from 2019 to 2021.
Hasling, K.M., & Ravnløkke, L., 2021, “Micro-Scale Curriculum Development in Design for Sustainability Education.” In Conference Proceedings No 9: NORDES Conference 2021: Matters of Scale, ISSN 1604-9705. www.nordes.org
Riisberg, V., Ræbild, U., Hasling, K. M. & Ravnløkke, L., 2021, “Handbook of Sustainability Materials: FashionSEEDS Fashion Societal, Economic & Environmental Design-led Sustainability”, Design School Kolding. https://www.fashionseeds.org/_files/ugd/ed0694_488bb65b79484e3584efcac84e16773c.pdf
Hasling, K.M. & Ravnløkke, L., 2020, “Curriculum development in sustainable fashion education”. The Digital Multilogue on Fashion Education: The Proceedings. 25 September 2020, The American University of Paris, digital event. https://www.aup.edu/conferences/digital-multilogue-fashion-education
Behind the platform is a three-year-long period of research, reflection, and co-design in the FashionSEEDS collaborative network comprised of four European fashion universities (Politecnico di Milano, University of the Arts London, Estonian Academy of the Arts, and Design School Kolding) who set out to explore what a transformed education system in Fashion Design for Sustainability could look like. The name FashionSEEDS stands for Fashion Societal, Economic & Environmental Design-led Sustainability which explains the focus of the work.
In the light of climate transformation, the fashion and textile industry face a paradigm shift, which means that education is also facing a major transformation. To understand the complexities of sustainability in the fashion and textile industry can be overwhelming for design students. The students show curiosity to learn about design and sustainability, however, frustration can arise in the clash between acquiring knowledge about the industry, at the same time as the same industry itself is changing, and the students are faced with knowledge about sustainable issues. This can be expressed as barriers where the students have difficulty understanding their role and how their skills can be brought into play. The paradigm shift that the industry is facing challenges the students to see their professional discipline from a completely new perspective. Likewise, tutors in fashion design are challenged to grasp new knowledge within the field while teaching the subject.
In exploring and designing the open-source learning repository the FashionSEEDS network aimed to support teaching at higher education institutions by creating a tutor's toolkit and other resources for developing curriculum, courses and teaching in fashion sustainability. One of the resources on the platform, The Learning Activity Tool, was designed by Louise Ravnløkke and Karen Marie Hasling to support tutors in their existing courses or to be used as inspiration for building new course content within different topics.
The FashionSEEDs Learning Activity Tool consists of 25 learning activities that have been designed to supplement teaching in fashion design for sustainability. The collection of activities provides a repertoire designed for tutors to use in planning teaching. Each activity is developed with the intention of a scalable format where the progression of the activity can be adjusted to the time available, as well as the level of education. For example, in the learning activity ‘Wardrobe stories’ students can start by studying their own wardrobes, and go on to increase the level of complexity, by studying other users’ wardrobes, in order to understand different age groups, preferences, needs and wants.
Whilst each activity can be used as a stand-alone tool, they can also be combined within specific themes and for specific teaching contexts. Each activity is developed with the intention of a scalable format where the progression can be adjusted to the time available as well as the level of education. Does the course for example address an issue that is on the horizon or one that is in the distant future? This opens for a discussion of when a design solution is relevant to and answers present issues within sustainable development, or when it addresses a desired change in a future scenario.
Consequently, the activities serve to establish new ways to approach design and sustainability and to give the design student / designer a voice when reaching out to other professionals, whether it is within the fashion supply chain of designing collections, concepts and strategies, or as policymakers.
The FashionSEEDS collaborative network has been co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union from 2019 to 2021.
Related Sources
Access the FashionSEEDs platform to download the Learning Activity Tool. https://www.fashionseeds.org/link-activity-learning-tool-1-2-title-2Hasling, K.M., & Ravnløkke, L., 2021, “Micro-Scale Curriculum Development in Design for Sustainability Education.” In Conference Proceedings No 9: NORDES Conference 2021: Matters of Scale, ISSN 1604-9705. www.nordes.org
Riisberg, V., Ræbild, U., Hasling, K. M. & Ravnløkke, L., 2021, “Handbook of Sustainability Materials: FashionSEEDS Fashion Societal, Economic & Environmental Design-led Sustainability”, Design School Kolding. https://www.fashionseeds.org/_files/ugd/ed0694_488bb65b79484e3584efcac84e16773c.pdf
Hasling, K.M. & Ravnløkke, L., 2020, “Curriculum development in sustainable fashion education”. The Digital Multilogue on Fashion Education: The Proceedings. 25 September 2020, The American University of Paris, digital event. https://www.aup.edu/conferences/digital-multilogue-fashion-education