Innovative, environmentally sustainable fashion design: a blended learning teaching framework that supports positive emotions and creativity during a design process

Abstract

Creativity, driving environmentally sustainable fashion design through innovation, has become increasingly more important. From an educational perspective, enhancing students’ creative design thinking processes, presents several challenges, especially in blended learning. This article addresses this concern and reports on the implementation of a blended learning teaching framework, applied to support students’ positive emotions and creativity during an environmentally sustainable fashion design project that required innovative design solutions. The qualitative inquiry adopted a case study research design, involving undergraduate fashion design students at a tertiary institution in South Africa. Two key findings have emerged from the research. Firstly, the significant level of creativity required by the undertaken design project requires re-thinking of support for creative and innovative thinking. Secondly, a clearer understanding of the anxiousness caused when participants are faced with innovative design practices is needed to find suitable solutions. Based on the findings, this paper concludes with improvements presented in an amended framework.