Reflective Practice to Support Professional Effectiveness and Learning of Textile Designers

Abstract

As a textile designer working in the industry, the researcher has observed that practitioners do not overlook their practice at their workplace. So, they may be drawn into an error that cannot be corrected until they realize what the requirement of work is and what are they doing. So, the researcher thinks reflection on practice is an essential element to enable experiential learning for professional development. Some writers argue that we cannot learn from experience without reflection as adults. Just like an educational setting, the researcher wants to explore how 'reflection' can be added to the design industry setting to meet the challenges of the market. Design Thinking is becoming increasingly more established in the instructional contexts of design globally and has also been introduced in some of these contexts in Pakistan. As a professional who was trained in the design field and then worked in the design industry for almost a decade, the researcher believes, however, that there is a gap between professional training and the requirements that the industry demands of design graduates. When designers join the textile industry, the researcher has observed that they perceive a gap between their academic training and professional setting. The researcher considers her research a qualitative analysis based on a multi-method approach. The findings of the study are drawn from a case study carried out with a group of textile designers working in a textile design studio in an industrial setup in Lahore, Pakistan. A set of 3 activities was conducted with 4 participants. Activities were followed by reflective journals of participants and observations/field notes taken by the design head. This research examines how Reflective Practice can be introduced into the design process within an industrial context through a series of reflection-in-action learning cycles.