Design for Values in Education at TU Delft

The Special Interest Group (SIG) on Design for Values in Education brings together educators from across TU Delft to strengthen the integration of values in education.

The SIG focuses on values such as sustainability, inclusion, responsibility, and justice, and aims to support their integration into both teaching content and educational practices. By gathering inspiring examples, exchanging experiences, and connecting educators across faculties, the group seeks to foster mutual learning and increase the visibility of ongoing initiatives.

Building on the Design for Values (DfV) approach, the SIG adopts a broad understanding of design that includes engineering, systems design, and traditional design disciplines. Within this perspective, values are not treated as constraints added at the end of a process, but as integral elements that shape both design practices and educational experiences from the outset.

This approach recognises that values play a central role in how educators frame problems, structure learning environments, and guide students. The SIG therefore encourages reflection on values in teaching, while supporting students in identifying, articulating, and critically engaging with values in their work.

At the same time, working with values involves navigating value tensions between different perspectives and priorities. The SIG highlights the importance of critically examining these tensions in context, rather than assuming that all values can be equally realised. Reflection, dialogue, and critical thinking are therefore key elements of Design for Values in education.

Although value-oriented approaches are already present in various courses and initiatives across TU Delft, they are not yet consistently embedded across programmes. Students may experience concepts such as stakeholder values as abstract or difficult to apply in practice. The SIG aims to address this by supporting educators in making value-thinking more explicit, relevant, and actionable.

Through these activities, the SIG contributes to strengthening interdisciplinary collaboration and to the development of a more value-aware educational environment. In doing so, it supports the broader goal of preparing students to make responsible and well-informed decisions in their professional practice and in society.