Informal Peer Critique
and the Negotiation
of Habitus in a
Design Studio
Colin M. Gray
DRS // CUMULUS 2013

Critique is central to design pedagogy
(Anthony, 1991; Hokanson, 2012)
Informal interaction between design
students has not been adequately
explored (“the hidden curriculum”)
(Dutton, 1991; Gray, in review; Willenbrock, 1991)
background

Peer
Between members of the same academic
program—in close proximity in terms of
experience and status
Informal
Not bounded by a traditional classroom
environment or professor/program
representation
background

review of
literature

literature
Existing research on critique
Design juries (Anthony, 1991; Percy, 2004)
Pin-ups or group crits (Blythman, Orr, & Blair, 2007; Hokanson, 2012)
Desk crits (Reimer & Douglas, 2003; Boling & Smith, 2010)
Peer-to-peer critique (Blythman, Orr, & Blair, 2007; Hokanson, 2012)

literature
Link of informal critique with reflection
Self-reflection as a developmental aid
(Schön, 1985; Cross, 2007)
Verbalization of reflection within the studio
(Logan, 2008; Morton & O’Brien, 2006; Dannels, Gaffney, & Martin, 2008)

literature
Shift to a “critical pedagogy”
Power invested in existing forms of critique
(Anthony, 1991; Webster, 2006)
Moving beyond an individualistic view
(Crysler, 1995; Webster, 2008)

habitus
HABITUS
FIELD
DOXA
Bourdieu, 1977, 1980, 1984; Stevens, 1995

context

context
Human-Computer Interaction design (HCI/d) program in a
United States School of Informatics
HCI/d Master’s students (first and second year)

data
Students (4—2 dyads)
Three stage data collection:
1. One hour interview about beliefs
2. One hour constructed critique dyad
3. One hour stimulated recall session

methods

methods
Naturalistic Inquiry (Lincoln & Guba, 1985)
Critical theory (Carspecken, 1996)
Intensive interview and observation strategies were used to
target beliefs and behaviors related to critique that were largely
tacit in nature
Observation of critique between study participants allowed for a
more naturalistic view into the behaviors and strategies in situ.

analysis
Coding of emergent themes
Sequence analysis of critique participants

findings

findings
Beliefs about critique:
the environment
the participants

findings
Structures of critique:
formality v. informality
objectivity v. subjectivity
professor v. student
BELIEFS

findings
Formality v. Informality
Lisa: “[the classroom is] sort of the place to like know that it’s not about
you, it’s about the design, and it’s more compartmentalized if you’re
actually talking about it in that formal setting.”
Paul: “[classroom critique is done] for the sake of critique”
Lisa: “big things—concept things, problem space things”
Paul: “I’m offering critique for the sake of helping you, not necessarily
because like this is a grade […] it’s critique for the sake of getting better.”
STRUCTURES

findings
Objective v. Subjective
Emily: “I feel like critiquing is just as much about asking questions as it is
about giving an opinion.”
Paul: “it’s too hard to offer kind of a generalized critique […] like
parameter-based critique. It’s just too difficult to say […] I know all of this
stuff enough to say that this is wrong and this is wrong and this is wrong,
because there’s no way you can—in this field.”
MAJOR SETTING SHIFTS

findings
Objective v. Subjective
Jiao: “...every time you are working on a design or looking at
other’s design, you are trying to see it from your perspectives, no
matter how um sympathetic you are. […] you will bring it—bring
your own (.) I would say experience or history or educational
background into it.”
MAJOR SETTING SHIFTS

findings
Professor v. Student
Paul: “[professor’s critique is not] tailored to my specific needs or abilities
as well as like getting critique from classmates.”
Lisa: “I don’t really want him to see like the messy bits where we’re losing
our minds [laughs] I want him to see like the finished pretty version.”
MAJOR SETTING SHIFTS

findings
Professor v. Student
Emily: “I think the faculty here […] are just like really good at you know, I’ll
spend ten minutes trying to explain to them what I’m doing, and they ask
me like one question, and they’re like, answer me that in one sentence.
And it’s almost like it’s a critique and a—I don’t think ultimatum is the
word, but like a—them kind of almost like demanding that I change my
perspective or that I like gather my thoughts.”
MAJOR SETTING SHIFTS

HABITUS
FIELD
DOXA

A. LISA B. PAUL
CLASSROOM
FORMALITY
LEGITIMIZES
CRITIQUE
CLASSROOM
CRITIQUE IS
PRO FORMA
INTERSUBJECTIVE
SPACE FORMED
THROUGH INTERACTION

next steps

next steps
Larger-scale study exploring the emergence of informal critique
Ethnographic methods to observe critique in a truly naturalistic
context with self-selected participants (currently underway)
Ongoing work to identify knowledge structures embedded in
discourse and interactions

references
Anthony, Kathryn H. 1991. Design juries on trial: The renaissance
of the design studio. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
Boling, Elizabeth, and Kennon M. Smith. 2010. “Intensive studio
experience in a non-studio masters program: Student activities
and thinking across levels of design”. Montréal: Design Research
Society International Conference.
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1977. Outline of a theory of practice (trans. R.
Nice). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1980. The Logic of Practice. Stanford: Stanford
University Press.
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1984. Distinction: A social critique of the
judgment of taste (trans. R. Nice). Cambridge, Massachusetts:
Harvard University Press.
Brandt, Carol B., Cennamo, Katherine, Douglas, Sarah, Vernon,
Mitzi, McGrath, Margarita, and Yolanda Reimer. 2011. “A
theoretical framework for the studio as a learning environment”.
International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 1-20.
doi:10.1007/s10798-011-9181-5
Calhoun, Craig. 1993. “Habitus, field, and capital: The question
of historical specificity”. In Bourdieu: Critical Perspectives, 61-88.
Cambridge, United Kingdom: Polity Press.
Carspecken, Phil F. 1996. Critical ethnography in educational
research: A theoretical and practical guide. New York: Routledge.
Cennamo, Katherine S., Brandt, Carol B., and Brigitte Scott.
2010. “Adapting the studio to design-based disciplines:
Research-based strategies for effective practice”. In Proceedings
of the 2010 conference on higher education pedagogy.
Blacksburg, Virginia, 14-15.
Cross, Nigel. 2007. Designerly ways of knowing. Basel,
Switzerland: Birkhäuser.
Crysler, C. Greig. 1995. “Critical pedagogy and architectural
education”. Journal of Architectural Education, 48(4): 208-217
Dannels, Deanna, Gaffney, Amy, and Kelly Martin. 2008. “Beyond
content, deeper than delivery: What critique feedback reveals
about communication expectations in design education”.
International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and
Learning, 2(2): 1-16.
Do, Ellen Y. L., & Mark D. Gross. 1996. “Drawing as a means to
design reasoning”. In Artificial Intelligence in Design. Palo Alto,
California.
Hokanson, Brad. 2012. “The design critique as a model for
distributed learning”. In The next generation of distance
education: Unconstrained learning, edited by L. Moller & J. B.
Huett, 71-83. Boston, Massachusetts: Springer.
Logan, Cheri. 2008. “Metaphor and pedagogy in the design
practicum”. International Journal of Technology and Design
Education, 18(1): 1-17. doi:10.1007/s10798-006-9009-x

references
Morton, Janne, & David O'Brien. 2006. “Selling your design: Oral
communication pedagogy in design education”. Communication
Education, 54(1): 6–19. doi:10.1080/03634520500076885
Percy, Christine. 2004. “Critical absence versus critical
engagement. Problematics of the crit in design learning and
teaching”. Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education,
2(3): 143-154.
Reimer, Yolanda J., and Sarah A. Douglas. 2003. “Teaching HCI
design with the studio approach”. Computer Science Education,
13(3): 191-205.
Schön, Donald A. 1985. The design studio: An exploration of its
traditions and potentials. London: RIBA Publications Limited.
Shaffer, David W. 2003. Portrait of the oxford design studio: An
ethnography of design pedagogy. WCER Working Paper No.
2003-11. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin-Madison,
Wisconsin Center for Educational Research.
Shulman, Lee S. 2005. “Signature pedagogies in the
professions”. Daedalus, 134(3): 52-59.
Siegel, Martin A., and Erik Stolterman. 2008. “Metamorphosis:
Transforming non-designers into designers”. In Undisciplined!
Proceedings of the Design Research Society conference 2008:
378:1-13. Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Hallam University.
Stevens, Garry. 1995. “Struggle in the studio: A Bourdivin look at
architectural pedagogy”. Journal of Architectural Education,
49(2): 105-122.
Webster, Helena. 2006. “Power, freedom and resistance:
Excavating the design jury”. International Journal of Art & Design
Education, 25(3): 286-296.
Webster, Helena. 2008. “Architectural education after Schön:
Cracks, blurs, boundaries and beyond”. Journal for Education in
the Built Environment, 3(2): 63-74

questions?

participantsparticipants
Participant Pseudonym Gender M.S. Year Country of Origin
Paul M 2nd USA
Emily F 2nd USA
Lisa F 1st USA
Jiao F 1st China