Farhat Ara

Srishti Manipal School of Art, Design and Technology, Manipal Academy of Higher Education · Creative Education

The COVID-19 pandemic compelled all schools and colleges in India to shift abruptly to online learning to continue education for students. This study examines the contextual factors that supported or impeded online learning for middle-school students in India. The public schools included in the study were selected from 11 states. All of the schools...

The paper draws on insights from our qualitative study with students, teachers, administrators, and parents from 11 states utilizing Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) techniques, interviews, and focus groups. The study was led by Dr. Indira Vijaysimha from Poorna Learning Centre, and Dr. Farhat Ara from Srishti Manipal Institute of Art Design...

This study set out to explore Indian school students’ naïve ideas about design and designers. Findings suggested that most students relegated ‘design’ to the status of mere decoration and associated ‘designers’ with gender and professional-stereotypic images. Insights from the survey afforded development of appropriate design activities and scope t...

This paper presents an investigation into Indian elementary and middle school students’ images of designers. A ‘Draw a designer at work’ test was used with 511 students from Classes 5 to 9 from a school located in Mumbai. Findings from the study indicate that Indian elementary and middle school students, who had no experience in design and technolo...

This paper reports on an investigation into middle school students’ naïve ideas about, and attitudes towards design and designers. The sample for the survey consisted of students from Classes 7 to 9 from a school located in Mumbai. The data were analysed qualitatively and quantitatively to look for trends in students' responses. Results show that I...

This paper presents the strategies employed by Indian middle-school students working in groups to identify three unfamiliar artefacts. The activity described in this paper was aimed at sensitising students to the close link between form and function and to bring a certain amount of uncertainty in the tasks before the actual design task. It was part...

The paper presents an investigation of middle school stu- dents' naïve ideas about design and designers and details of the trial of design-related activities aimed at sensitizing students to issues of design. Twenty five students studying in class 7 participated in the study conducted over a period of 5 days. A questionnaire was administered to all...