Integrating eco-fashion into textile and fashion design education in Nigeria.
Kent-onah, Roseline
Kent-onah, Roseline
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Abstract
From the 1970s world bodies and governments have emphasised the tripartite relationship of education, sustainable development and the environment through different policy declarations. These declarations demand that higher education institutions, as agents of education and learning, should play crucial roles in the integration and implementation of sustainable development policies in efforts towards achieving a sustainable environment. Principle amongst these education policy declarations is the concept of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), which has informed educational policy in many countries around the world. Fashion and textile education programmes in higher educational institutions are especially important sites for receipt of these concepts and policies of environmentally sustainable development due to the significant negative impacts of the fashion and textile production industries on the environment. General ignorance about environmental impacts and lack of proper fashion and textile education to promote a healthy environment have exacerbated the problem in many industries, particularly in developing countries.
Using Nigeria as a case study, this thesis sets out to evaluate the degree to which environmental sustainability concepts are incorporated into the curricula of fashion and textile programmes in institutions of higher learning, and whether this translates into sustainable fashion, or eco-fashion, education. The study interrogates if the existing curricula in fashion and textile design are guided by theoretical frameworks, policies and declarations that support environmental
sustainability in the industry itself, and whether the teaching and learning methods display continual modification and updating in relation to evolving environmental knowledge, as well as systematic training of educators and the development of relevant research programmes. The study sampled 411 respondents from a representative sample of six higher learning institutions in Nigeria offering programmes in fashion and textile design, applying a structured questionnaire collecting quantitative data, as well as interviews and document analysis. The results of the research show that the Nigerian Government is not doing much pertaining to empowering citizens in respect of environmental issues. Although most educators were aware of the necessity to teach sustainable waste disposal in order to control environmental pollution, they could not because of the present state of the fashion design and textile curricula and did not consider it their direct responsibility. The research shows that educators are however ready to teach and students are ready to learn. The research concluded that better understanding of sustainable development and the incorporation of it in the fashion and textile design curricula in higher education institutions in Nigeria is likely to increase learning and teaching of eco-fashion content.
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Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree, Doctor Technologiae in the Department of Fashion Design and Technology, Faculty of Arts and Design at the Tshwane University of Technology.
Date
2019-01-01
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Tshwane University of Technology
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Keywords
Sustainable development, Education, Environment, Nigeria, Eco-fashion, Fashion design