The diagram ‘Possibility Core’ (right) talks to the Possible, Plausible, and Probable, with focus on the preferable. (Dunne and Raby) (2013) explore aspects of what Nigel Cross talks of as (‘Designerly Ways of Knowing’) in his seminal book (2006). They investigate ways to empathise, and perceive in multiplicities and complex contexts, enlisting the support of ‘imagination’. This involves using the imagination’s power to juxtapose, critique, and articulate concepts spatially and longitudinally, in a contextappropriate manner. In doing so, we unlock the full potential of our imagination in the realm of the ‘speculative’. This is exemplified in the diverse and implausible manifestations of surrealism, where the conventional boundaries of reality and fantasy are blurred. Surrealism continues to affect and underpin 21st-century cultures. Where might we find the ‘speculative’ Management education is often bound by taught and applied frameworks. I argue that such frameworks can be reductionist in nature, lacking plasticity and contextual relevance, due to the linear nature of application. My concern is that we have witnessed a transformation of pedagogies towards a ‘technocratic’ formalisation that might benefit greatly from aspects of studio-based pedagogies, enhancing the application of applied frameworks. Studio-based pedagogies, originating in art and design education in the 1830s under managed capitalism, serve as an induction into a shared practice by professionals “developed over centuries from an historic model of apprenticeship” (Crowther, 2013). They emphasise technical skills, conceptual awareness, and understanding of various styles and practices, and are formalised through the ‘crit’ process. Below is an example of the implementation of ‘Designerly Ways of Knowing’ in a management educational context that emerged as a part of the externally-funded scholarship project Good Place Innovators. My role was to translate speculative thinking and studio-based learning as a student-centered approach to learning to a digital asynchronous and self-guided learning experience. Good Place Lab Broadly, Design Thinking as a methodology has its foundation in work carried out at the RCA’s Department of Design Research in the 1960s and 70s, led by Professor Bruce Archer. Cross’s 1982 paper and 2006 book, Designerly Ways Knowing, extends this work, arguing for design as a third ‘culture’ in education, fostering ‘designerly’ ways of knowing in ‘all’ our students. Often, the challenge in education is introducing learners to unfamiliar professional practices. Taking this into account, to accelerate the induction of students into aspects of ‘Designerly Ways Knowing’ (design thinking), and to support students’ development of abductive reasoning, the project team developed a pre-arrival online learning resource, the Good Place Lab. Good Place Lab, developed by Professor Radka Newton, is aimed at learners embarking on entrepreneurship and innovation degree programmes. The course is structured as a sequence of steps based on a set innovation challenge related to improving a campus university environment. The main objective of the course is to facilitate basic concepts of design thinking methods applied to innovation. The underlying principles of how this course was created are based on applying the Community of Inquiry framework (Swan et al., 2009)) complemented with Salmon’s (2013) concept of short and engaging e-tivities. Learners are introduced to an innovative interplay of the application of teaching pedagogies in online environment, student-centredness and the value of design thinking in management curriculum. The course has been completed by more than 50 learners who have reported enjoyment, unexpected fun with learning, and new perspectives on their personal practices to problem solving. As a result, they joined their postgraduate studies with greater awareness of the subject and practice of innovation, and they also enhanced their reflection abilities. “I have realised the importance of stepping away from my initial solutions to a problem, examining their pitfalls, and testing new solutions.” (course participant, 2022) Additionally, the learners developed a greater sense of belonging to their University degree programme and confidence in sharing challenges and learning from mistakes. Conclusion The first part of the 21st century has delivered several global [wicked] existential problems. Problems that ‘risk’ not only our post-Second World War belief systems, but also require radical thinking to acknowledge then counter, or adapt to, the effects of the Anthropocene and the resulting climate crises. Considering this, I argue the speculative, often considered peripheral or even ephemeral, must now be recognised as being central to the development of an innovative and adaptive mindset, a requirement of 21st-century leadership. 37 Scholarship Matters What is it that we might conceive as a problem, and where does that conception begin and end? Speculative thinking affords us ways to approach the art of the preferable, without being constrained by an existing framework, practice, expectation, or self-regulated boundaries.
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