Files and links (2)
Open CC BY V4.0
Conference paper
Reading against the grain: Ubuntu, Sankofa, and Rhythm as philosophical infrastructures in first-year design education
Proceedings of DRS, Vol.2026
DRS2026: Edinburgh (Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 08/06/2026–12/06/2026)
2026
Appears in Recent Faculty of Education Publications
Metrics
1 Record Views
Abstract
This scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) study examines how African philosophies can operate as philosophical infrastructure in first-year design education rather than as content appended to an otherwise unchanged curriculum. Through a 12-week introductory studio with 25 students meeting twice weekly (2.5 hours per session) in Melbourne, I operationalised Ubuntu (relational being), Sankofa (retrieving wisdom from the past), and rhythm (cyclical temporality) through my tutorial studio teaching within an existing course structure. The materials discussed here comprise studio-generated artefacts, anonymised teaching feedback collected through scheduled class activities, and my own teaching observations reviewed thematically around space, time, and feedback relations. Descriptive teaching indicators suggested higher participation in critique (average peer comments per student rising from 3.1 to 7.8), earlier sharing of work-in-progress, and more iterative refinement when these philosophies shaped studio practice. The study argues that decolonial pedagogies can operate within existing institutional frameworks, turning first-year studios into spaces of collective learning, cumulative memory, and rhythmic renewal rather than competitive individual achievement.
Details
- Title
- Reading against the grain: Ubuntu, Sankofa, and Rhythm as philosophical infrastructures in first-year design education
- Creators
- Yaw Ofosu-Asare - RMIT University
- Publication Details
- Proceedings of DRS, Vol.2026
- Conference
- DRS2026: Edinburgh (Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 08/06/2026–12/06/2026)
- Number of pages
- 15
- Identifiers
- 991013396852602368
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Education
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Conference paper