Editorial: Signature Pedagogies and the Built Environment

In a lecture hosted by the National Research Council’s Center for Education, Shulman (2005) contrasted the different roles and responsibilities of faculty staff teaching students within subject areas or disciplines and those teaching students intending to practise within a professional area. Given the practice-oriented fields in which many built environment students go on to be employed such a distinction is evidently important. In particular, the asserted differences invite questions around professional specificities in terms of knowledge and skills and the relative idiosyncrasies of individual built environment disciplines. Moreover, considerations around the nature of professional education and its intended outcomes drive to the core of the sometimes uncomfortable relationships between universities, industry and the professions (Griffiths, 2004). These debates are critical for the aspirant professional.