Design Bearings

Design Bearings Margaret Macintyre Latta The use of the term "design" is prevalent in education talk (e.g., see the theme is­ sue of Educational Researcher, vol. 32, no. 1 [2003]). Some of this talk tends to cast design as representations manifested through applied method as ways to solve and address educational practices and issues (e.g., Constantine & Lock­ wood, 1999; Dick & Carey, 1990; Edelson, 2002; Kelly & Lesh, 2000). Within this focus on representation an impulse for generality and commensurability seems to dictate; either the data must be seen to correspond to some external reality, or the subjects must agree (e.g., Brown, 1992; Brown & Campione, 1996; Cobb, Confrey, diSessa, Lehrer, & Schauble, 2003; Collins, 1992; Hoadley, 2002). De­ sign can become an act that reifies and totalizes what is present, and the future, that which is absent, different, possible, and yet-to-be-achieved, disappears. Such disregard for the future concerns me and tells me the role of design in education is neglecting its artistic roots and traditions, potentially undermining the strengths that design offers education. Certainly, arts-based educational re­ searchers (e.g., Barone, 1995, 200la, 2001b; Barone & Eisner, 1997; Eisner. 1991. 1997, 1999) have fore-grounded these strengths, valuing the creation of an alter­ native reality, seeing ambiguity as productive, utilizing expressive, contextual­ ized, and vernacular language, suggesting and promoting empathy and insights moving "toward uncovering obscured questions" (Barone, 2001a, p. 25). But, such thinking seems to be absent from much of the body of work recently co­ opting the term design and in my opinion risks losing sight of the integral nature of design vital within the act of designing. Specifically, the loss of temporality and interplay through reliance on concepts brought to bear, rather than bearings found within the act of designing, will be examined. To do so, I draw primarily on the thinking of Dewey (1934, 1938) and Bakhtin (1990, 1993) as both ground their thinking in the actuality of the creating act. The Aristotelian notion of repe­ tition as permeating the act of designing, evoking an exploratory, restless move­ ment, is taken up as a means to see and experience the strengths of designing. Repetition is not simply a methodological, theoretical, or philosophical notion, but a moral one. I suggest that the act of designing demands what Caputo (1987) calls an "ethics of dissemination." The act of designing entails a moral obligation E&C/Education and Culture 21 (2) (2005): 31-43 .31 32 • Margaret Macintyre Latta to the future of our work, to generativity, to the possibility that what is "wholly other" (Caputo, 2000) might remain so, and resist being calcified into a repre­ sentative design. The Act ofDesigning The act of designing assumes that one must enter as a designer into such acts. Attending to the act of designing within the act of designing and not the design itself, becomes the focus. Contrarily, design can be taken up as a representative form, assuming functionary, imposed roles. The danger of calcifying design arises. Rather, the artistic roots and traditions of design take up design as a proc­ ess emerging out of the act. Design is always being yielded. It is the capacity to see this yielding movement that is the strength of design and is underestimated. Returning to the etymological origin of design from the Latin designare meaning to mark out, I search for the bearings upon which yielding design depends, the conditions of designing grounded in the designer's capacity to concomitantly see and act within the adapting, building, creating process of designing. It is this search for bearings that I desire to gain greater access into, in order to recognize, foster, and nurture the terms of design in others. I tum to Bakhtin's (1990, 1993) early aesthetic essays and Dewey's (1934, 1938) later works to pursue the conditions of design. Though each writes from their own perspective and context, both Bakhtin and Dewey ground thinking in the creating process itself. Bearingsllived terms emerge for me from each thinker that cultivates "the thinking in situations" (Albers, 1969, p. 35) which enables seeing. In this way, both Bakhtin and Dewey help me to insist that design must be understood in terms of human action. Thus, the...