An Ethnographic Approach to Gender-Based Relationships in Graphic Design Group Work

Nowadays, the university pedagogy has increasingly used group work to help students increase their group work skills by gaining social recognitions while working with others. The factors investigated in this study may predict the different gender based roles among students’ relationships, especially the female students’ roles during group work in university. In this subject, there are questionnaire and target group investigations carried out by the graphic design students and designers, which compares the different group work experiences between their education lives and career lives. The study uses the quantitative and qualitative data using an ethnographic approach to suggest that the roles women take during the group work of their school lives will inevitably influence their future work positions. These findings about different positions associated with gender differences will help the educators identify the potential problems in groups, and furthermore will help female designers to improve their ability and competitiveness during group work.