Research Question
This work investigates:
To what extent can small group walking activities promote relevant and contextual place-contingent discussions among interior design students?
The project explored how walking, as a low-stakes yet conceptually rich practice, might enable students to engage in dialogue, reflect, and reimagine their work beyond the constraints of the studio environment.
Methods
The session draws on a practice-based case study with Year 3 Interior Design students at Glasgow School of Art. Two structured paired walks were designed using zines containing prompts informed by art walking practices, sound scores, and collaborative pedagogy. Students walked to predetermined locations while responding to the prompts, later participating in group discussions and completing feedback questionnaires.
Data were collected through post-walk surveys and two audio-recorded focus groups, then analysed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2022). The analysis revealed themes around attention, uncertainty, novelty, and the tension between visibility and value in decentered learning settings.
For the conference, the findings were re-presented through a walking video that moved through GSA’s campus buildings, overlaid with the author’s voice, and accompanied by a live, side-by-side commentary via Zoom.
Context of Contribution
Presented on 11 June 2025 as part of GSA’s Learning and Teaching Conference, this session responded to the subtheme Strengthening Student Engagement, community and Belonging within the wider theme Diverse Learner Journeys: Supporting Students to Succeed.
The session combined video and live narration to create an immersive, dual-format presentation. Viewers followed a narrated walk through familiar and unfamiliar spaces at GSA while engaging with live reflections on the pedagogic process, accessibility, and student experience.
The presentation offered practical and conceptual insight into how movement, detour, and dialogic methods can expand traditional teaching practice, particularly in creative disciplines. It also contributed to conversations about how educators can help students recognise and value experiential, relational learning when it occurs beyond the studio.