Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

The traditional approach to teaching interior design history is an examination of the dominant styles developed by and for politically dominant groups within western European societies. This approach emphasizes the unity of cultures and conflicts with the concepts of diversity and multiculturalism prevalent in American higher education. It also ignores contributions to design history by a variety of important ethnic groups. The goal of this discussion is to increase educators’ awareness of subtle and overt preiudice contained in design history literature. This prejudice is against ethnic groups that made significant contributions and comprise a large portion of the American populace.

By adopting standard texts and assigning readings from major works, teachers of interior design history may be perceived by students as champions of the status quo and opponents of multiculturalism, and they may be identified with the narrow Eurocentrism evident in the work of many significant historians. Interior design history texts currently used by American colleges and universities were reviewed to identify prejudice in the literature that creates obstacles to multiculturalism. The means by which design contributions of some ethnic groups are marginalized, devalued, or ignored are highlighted. Rather than avoiding texts that display prejudice yet provide important information and insight, teachers can broaden student understanding of the nature of historiography by discussing these subtle and overt prejudices. They can stress the vitality of historiography as a process that constantly reevaluates and reinterprets the past's impact on the present, stimulating student interest in and appreciation for nondominant groups.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Blakemore

R. G.

(1997). History of interior design and furniture. New York : Van Nostrand Reinhold.

Calloway

& Cromley

(Eds.) (1991). The elements of style. New York : Simon and Schuster.

Carl

M. A.

, & Blakemore

R. G.

(1988). Historic research methodologies for discovering Black contributions to the building trades and decorative arts. Journal of Interior Design Education Research, 14(2), 15–22.

Fletcher

(1931). (9th ed.). A history of architecture on the comparative method New York : Scribners.

Foundation for Interior Design Education Research. (1995). FIDER standards and guidelines: Professional level programs (FIDER form 402R). Grand Rapids, MI : Author.

Gombrich

(1981). Hegel and art history. In Porphyrios

(Ed.), On the methodology of architectural history (pp. 3–9). London : Architectural Design.

Gowans

(1976). Images of American living: Four centuries of architecture and furniture as cultural expressions. New York : Harper and Row.

Noble

A. G.

(1992). Migration to North America: Before, during, and after the 19th century. In Noble

A. G.

(Ed.), To build a new land (pp. 3–25). Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press.

Salins

P. D.

(1997). Assimilation, American style. New York : Basic Books.

10.

Smith

G. E. K.

(1976). A pictorial history of architecture in America (Vol. 1). New York : American Heritage.

11.

Stern

R. A. M.

(1981). Architecture, history, and historiography a the end of the modernist era. In Hancock

J. E.

(Ed.), History in, of, and for architecture (pp. 34–43). Cincinnati : University of Cincinnati.

12.

Whiton

(1937). Elements of interior decoration. Chicago : Lippincott.

13.

Whiton

(1944). Elements of interior decoration (Rev. ed.). Chicago : Lippincott.

14.

Whiton

(1951). Elements of interior design and decoration Philadelphia : Lippincott.

15.

Whiton

(1963). Elements of interior design and decoration (3rd ed.) Philadelphia : Lippincott.

16.

Whiton

(1974). Interior design and decoration (4th ed.). New York : Harper Collins.

17.

Zelinsky

(1992). The cultural geography of the United States Englewood Cliffs, NJ : Prentice–Hall.

Prejudice as an Obstacle to Multiculturalism in the Teaching of Design History

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References