Teaching Speculative Design Across Cultures: Practices, Challenges, and Opportunities

Abstract

Speculative Design (SD) has gained global traction in design research and education, offering critical tools to question dominant narratives and imagine alternative futures. Yet, how SD is taught, practiced, and received differs across cultural and institutional settings. This workshop investigates these differences, with particular attention to the contrast between contexts where SD has evolved through traditions of critical theory and artistic inquiry, and those where design education is shaped by industry relevance, technological innovation, and pragmatic problem-solving. We invite design educators, researchers, and practitioners to reflect on how cultural values, institutional priorities, and pedagogical traditions influence the interpretation and teaching of speculative design. Through comparative case sharing and collaborative reflection, the workshop aims to (1) explore how culture shapes both speculative design practices and their pedagogical forms, (2) examine the tensions and synergies between critical inquiry and practical application in SD education, and (3) identify shared challenges and emergent opportunities in fostering futures-oriented, critical design education across diverse global contexts.