How can we study and teach design in a way that is critical, socially engaged and
relevant to place. In this timely book, Danah Abdulla challenges us to imagine
a design education and culture that moves beyond blindly borrowing Eurocentric
models and frameworks. Drawing on learnings from work with design students,
educators and designers in the Arab region, with a particular focus on Jordan and
featuring examples from Lebanon, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, Abdulla
creates a dialogue with those who have most at stake in education to imagine
how we can develop a collaborative, contextually based and socially relevant
design education.

By first contextualising higher education and design education in the region,
and examining the issues and challenges that are pertinent to the development
of curricula and pedagogy, such as power, bureaucracy, language and access,
Abdulla considers the purpose and relevance of design education in contemporary
postcolonial societies. She explores how regional identities and class divisions
shape the development of design cultures, as well as different perceptions of design
and its value. Abdulla highlights design's role in society and the models of curricula
and pedagogy appropriate for developing contextually situated design education.
Outlining skills and strategies for equipping future designers, she proposes new
possibilities for forms of practice and an actionable framework for developing
design education.