Curriculum Development of the First Women-Only Industrial Design Program in Saudi Arabia

The first of our research articles on our curriculum development project has now been published in the International Journal of Design Education. Our team of international researchers and myself as curriculum consultant continue to work together reviewing the implementation. A recent visit to Saudi Arabia gave us new insights which we hope to share with readers soon. It is an exciting time of growth and development in Saudi as they focus on implementing the 2030 Vision.

Photo of the College of Design at Imam Abdul Rahman Bin Faisal University

Carlos Montana-Hoyos, Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation, United Arab Emirates
Elke Stracke, University of Canberra, Australia
Karin Oerlemans, Kairos Consultancy and Training, Australia
Lena Ahmed Darweesh, Imam Abdul Rahman Bin Faisal University, Saudi Arabia

Abstract: This article presents a case study of cross-cultural collaboration. An Australian and a Saudi Arabian university collaboratively developed the curriculum for a bachelor of industrial design (ID) program at a women-only college of design in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). This article first describes the local context for which the curriculum was developed with a focus on how gender segregation shapes education and workplace in the KSA. Next, the literature review discusses cross-cultural aspects of design and contemporary ID education. We highlight the main results of a benchmarking exercise of current undergraduate ID curricula worldwide that we conducted before describing the planning process for the new curriculum at the local college. We then focus on the interpretation of the curriculum from an Australian to a Saudi Arabian context and discuss constraints and complexities in its development. The article also presents a reflection of the value of the cross-cultural collaborative process, our experience, and learning for both partners, and future collaboration and research.

Keywords: Cross-Cultural Collaboration, Curriculum Development, Industrial Design, Product Design, Saudi Arabia, Women-only Education

Citation: Montana Hoyos, Carlos, Elke Stracke, Karin Oerlemans, and Lena Ahmed Darweesh. 2018. “Cross-Cultural Collaboration for Curriculum Development of the First Women-Only Industrial Design Program in Saudi Arabia .” The International Journal of Design Education 12 (4): 11-22. doi:10.18848/2327-0020/CGP/v12i04/11-22.

Click here to read more about our project

A Cross-Cultural Collaboration
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