Students’ Understanding of Integrating Social Responsibility Dimensions into Graphic Design Curriculum

Abstract

Integration of social responsibility dimensions into graphic design curriculum has received increasing attention nowadays, and that is due to exclusive impacts designers have in society. Despite this, precise understanding among students of integrating social responsibility pertaining to societal, environmental, and cultural dimensions into graphic design curriculum, specifically in the Malaysian context is inconclusive. In this qualitative study, 3 groups of students from 3 private colleges in Malaysia shed some light on their understanding of social responsibility dimensions, and with regards to their experiences of how these dimensions are integrated by their lecturers into the graphic design curriculum. Results indicate that while all students present a sufficient understanding of social responsibility in societal and cultural dimensions, it tends to be lacking in environmental dimension. Further, most students express that despite their lecturers’ planning for meaningful content and pedagogical processes for the graphic design courses, no specifically related formal goals are integrated into the curriculum. The results, therefore suggest that more precise definitions of each social responsibility dimension needs to be integrated into graphic design curriculum, specifically in the curriculum purposes, content, pedagogical processes, and assessment methods.

Keywords: Social Responsibility Dimensions, Societal Dimension, Environmental Dimension, Cultural Dimension, and Graphic Design Curriculum