How do transformative experiences in a 'design-for-good' pedagogy enable ethical responsibility in undergraduate designers?

Impacts of over-consumption and advertising suggest design must redirect to ethical practices (Fry, 2015). By 'redirecting' in undergraduate graphic design education, I researched impacts of a 'design for good' (DfG) pedagogy on students (n=45), across four years of iterative interventions. I adapted Pugh's (2011) Teaching for Transformative Experiences model for ethos-change by embedding critical pedagogy and critical hope. Focusing studies on each of the measurable elements of transformative experience - expanded perception, value, and transfer - I investigated how experiential, community-based DfG pedagogy redirected students' design ethics.

Phenomenographic analyses of students' responses to two annual interventions demonstrated that they could re-see design as DfG. The cohort progressively expanded perception from an inward focus on the self as learner, to an outward focus on the social affordances of DfG, and ultimately, to a focus on systems change.

Semi-structured interviews with students revealed conditions promoting value for DfG. Patterns of value-growth took comparative trajectories through experiences of empathy, self-efficacy and design purpose. Individual narratives also highlighted variations in experiential value that could slow or compete with finding value.

Students' narratives supported identification of three categories of transfer: transfer of DfG content as 'noticing'; actions within developing DfG practice and career aims; and transference of DfG-grounded agency into their personal lives.

Students underwent transformative experiences when all components were present, successfully redirecting their perceptions, values and actions into ethical design practice. The research into the students' perspectives, therefore, contributes to an understanding of how teaching for transformative experience can enable ethos-change in situated undergraduate contexts.