Herman Botes, Acting Head of the Department of Visual Communication, is the co-editor of a new book, Educating Citizen Designers in South Africa.
Educating Citizen Designers in South Africa, the title of the eleven chapter book, aims at sharing critical citizenship design teaching, by including contributions from a range of design educators and one student who work in different design disciplines, such as architecture, graphic and product design.
Prof Elmarie Costandius, Associate Professor and Co-ordinator: Art Education, Department of Visual Arts, Stellenbosch University, is the co-editor. She is also the supervisor of Botes’ PhD.
In the preface of the book, Botes argues that students should investigate deeper causalities within society and experience academic freedom, and that this freedom should accommodate the ability to politicise notions of culture, knowledge and power.
In a blurb on the back cover, Dr Duncan Reyburn of the University of Pretoria, describes the book as “an essential scholarly work that does us the favour of taking seriously the design educator’s role in facilitating responsible design theory and praxis within South Africa’s complex socio-political context.”
Botes is also the President-elect of the Design Education Forum of Southern Africa (DEFSA).
- Educating Citizen Designers in South Africa is published by AFRICAN SUN MeDIA under the Sun PreSS imprint.