Urban design education : learning for life in practice

Abstract

This edition of UDI highlights emergent themes in higher education, namely internationalisation and digital technology, and identifies the potential of these themes to shift the modes of practice that students will eventually enter. The primary objective of this paper is to present ideas about the way in which formal urban design education might prepare students to adapt to these shifting modes of practice. The identified themes, like other domains of built environment knowledge, probably first appeared as problematic for practitioners rather than educators; this would be consistent with common understandings that practice knowledge (rather than theory knowledge) is a priori in professional, practice-based disciplines (Eraut, 1994). It is inevitable that the knowledge required to participate in the life-world of practice following graduation is emergent, and probably unlearnable, prior to engagement with practice. Whether it is the themes identified in this edition (internationalisation and digital technology), or others yet-unimagined, urban design students are best equipped for working life if they develop competence in knowledge development through practice during the course of their university studies. The central ideas discussed here promote undergraduate education that is conceptualised and implemented, through critical work-based teaching and learning strategies, to prepare novices to adapt to the ambiguous, knowledge-building nature of practice.