Reflecting Our Pedagogies

This chapter outlines the pedagogical ethos underpinning the FUEL4DESIGN project and its Orientation Unit: Learning to Unlearn. Conceived as a foundation for teaching futures literacies in design education, the Unit invites educators to deconstruct prior learning, reflect critically on their teaching practice, and engage collaboratively in processes of exchange, feedback, and transformation.

Central to this approach is the notion of unlearning—the willingness to question assumptions, embrace discomfort, and cultivate openness to divergent perspectives. Learning to unlearn becomes both a pedagogical and ethical stance, enabling educators to navigate the transdisciplinary intersections of design, futures, and literacies with awareness, humility, and curiosity.

The chapter critiques the instrumental, goal-oriented culture of contemporary design education, arguing instead for mindfulness and attentiveness to the present moment in teaching, echoing bell hooks’ call to “be fully present” and Donna Haraway’s exhortation to “stay with the trouble.” It also foregrounds positionality—the recognition that all teaching and learning are situated, relational, and co-created.

Ultimately, the chapter advocates for a pedagogy of brave spaces over “safe” ones, where vulnerability, dialogue, and constructive divergence foster genuine transformation. Education, in this view, becomes an act of shared orientation toward solidarity, justice, and self-determined futures.