Visiting Hannah Arendt: Reflections on the civic affordances of storytelling in design education

Stories Worth Telling - crafting stories through the art of design

Abstract

In this article, I consider the role of storytelling as a civic act, which is made visible through a reflection on the storytelling processes that informed the underpinning of a curriculum project showcased during the Stories Worth Telling exhibition (2023). To this end, I focus on how the stories worth telling are shaped, archived, and celebrated through participatory engagements and experiences by fourth-year Information Design students at the University of Pretoria. Underscored by Hannah Arendt’s notion that storytelling serves as a bridge between the private and public realms, I highlight the civic affordances of the storytelling process that may ultimately augment the students’ critical thinking and not only their technical design capabilities.