Teaching for Transformation: Lessons from Critical Pedagogy for Design Futures Education

This essay considers the meaning of criticality in design futures education. It identifies three such meanings – criticality as an indication of importance, as a style of reasoning, and as attentiveness to power – and argues that the latter is most suitable for seeding transformative change. By drawing connections between critical pedagogy and critical futures studies, we aim to chart a path through which design futures education can potentially grapple with the political, contentious aspects of future-making.