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sustaInaBlE FashIon : a handBooK For Educators

pedagogy and Institutional

approaches Introduction

The Pedagogy and Institutional Approaches section brings
together case studies of experiences of teaching about
sustainability, development of new courses and curricula,
approaches to teaching for sustainable development
and reflections on dissertations and placements as tools
for teaching.

Fashioning an Ethical Industry displays examples of students’
work relating to sustainability on its website at http://
fashioninganethicalindustry.org/studentwork/. Your own
students may find inspiration in these pages. We would also
be very happy to receive images and information about
students’ work in your own university, college or school for
consideration for the website.

aBout thE contrIButIons In thE pEdagogy and
InstItutIonal approachEs chaptEr

An Institutional Approach to Sustainable Fashion
Education by Fashioning an Ethical Industry, a project of
Labour Behind the Label, UK, is divided into two sections:
The first section is aimed at educational institutions wishing
to respond to the key sustainability questions facing
the fashion industry in the 21st century by integrating
sustainability issues into the teaching of fashion education
to enable students to develop skills, knowledge and values
they can take forward into industry. The second section
relates to the development of a sustainability policy
in a more wide reaching sense, beyond the teaching of
sustainability issues.

In November 2007, Educators for Socially Responsible
Apparel Business (ESRAB) convened a special session
at the annual conference of the International Textile and

Apparel Association with the aim of creating learning goals

related to social responsibility and sustainability. Groups

were formed around four sub-topics - labour compliance,

environmental sustainability, consumer issues/materialism,

body image/disordered eating - and were given the

question: What should apparel/textile students be able to

do (regarding each sub-topic area of social responsibility/

sustainability) upon graduation? The results of the special

session can be found in Proposed Learning Goals for

Social responsibility and Sustainability, by Marsha Dickson,

on behalf of Educators for Socially Responsible Apparel

Business (ESRAB), USA.

Approaches to research and Writing for BA

Dissertations relevant to Fashioning an Ethical Industry

by Caryn Simonson, Chelsea College of Art and Design,

UK, summarises the experiences of educators in teaching

and supervising dissertations at undergraduate level,

with a focus on issues around design, sustainability and

responsibility, on BA (Hons) Textile Design at Chelsea

College of Art and Design. It includes the College’s

experience of the strengths and pitfalls of student

dissertation work in this area, case studies of student

dissertations, and a selected reading list. It is not intended

as a guide as such, but as a way of sharing their experience.

The article, Problem-based Learning: The Perfect Tool

for a Creative Curriculum by Efrat Tseëlon, School of

Design, University of Leeds, UK, provides a summary of

the rationale and procedure of the Maastricht model

of Problem-based Learning (PBL). PBL is a method that

privileges learning over teaching. The method provides

intellectual tools as well as the teamworking experience

for conducting independent research. Four examples of