The Concept of ‘Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion’ in Design Education: Overview and Directions

The need to align teaching and learning practices to concepts that are conformed to the evolution of contemporary society, so that students can gain higher confidence in addressing the instances of future markets, requires Design universities to review their curricula. Equipping future designers with updated cultural and design frameworks is an imperative and strategic mission. Among innovative concepts that can advance Design Education and the development of so skills in learners, ‘Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion’ (EDI) is today considered as paramount to reorienting teaching and learning practices toward holistic educational patterns. This would allow students to gain more confidence in designing enabling products and services for all consumers, including vulnerable ones. However, EDI is an evolving and complex concept, sometimes hard to grasp. Moreover, potentially biased contents could limit its correct adoption. This work explores the concept of EDI in Design Education; it provides an overview of principal concepts and shows promising trajectories for Design studies. It follows a four-step process comprising literature review, case study analysis, data synthesis and classification, and the discussion on promising research trajectories.