Design’s Inherent Interdisciplinarity: The Arts in Integrated Curricula

In the November/December 1998 issue of Arts Education Policy Review, I introduced readers to the concept of design-based education and a study that I coauthored for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) on the ways design is being used by American teachers in a variety of subjects. The article recounted the success that teachers have in using the methods of architects, industrial designers, landscape architects, planners, and graphic designers, as well as the pedagogy of design educators, in teaching subjects other than design. Further, it linked the outcomes of design-based learning to the goals of education reform and called for greater attention to the design education of art teachers.