Foundations of American Design Education

This dissertation is a study of the evolution of design education, its relationship to broader education theory, and specifically of the evident correlations between the thoughts of the American pragmatist philosophers and the practices of modernist design educators of the twentieth century. As a work of historical/philosophical interpretation, it is organized into a narrative form.;The work establishes the historical context of the primary subject area by tracing the development of the relationship between philosophy and education beginning with ancient Greece and continuing through the twentieth century, and by outlining the progress of design education beginning in the first century BC. Particular emphasis is given to American design education commencing in the mid-nineteenth century.;The connection of the streams of design and general education is established via the linkage of studio instruction and the concept of "learning by doing." The work culminates in a discussion of the writing of pragmatist philosopher John Dewey in relation to the methods of artist and teacher Josef Albers.