M. Tech. Fashion Design and Technology / For students to remain competitive in their respective industries, it has become essential for them to be trained in the use of discipline relevant software programs. When focusing on Computer Aided Design (CAD) training for fashion specifically, certain challenges arise. Traditionally software instruction focused on teaching the interface, tools and functions of a software program as opposed to it being used appropriately within the context of a particular discipline. As a result, students struggle to recall the steps they need to follow and consequently also to apply their newly gained knowledge to project work. Compounding this, high-end fashion-specific design packages, such as Lectra, are not suitable for use by individuals due to its expensive nature. The use of these packages is similarly limited in its use via departmental computer laboratories due to licencing restrictions. The licencing of mid-range design packages such as the Adobe Creative Suite might be more affordable, but at an institutional level it is still regarded as expensive and also only installed in departmental computer laboratories, again limiting students access. Even where a student owns a personal computer, purchasing the Adobe Creative Suite (at discount) may not be viable. However, despite it being intended for other design disciplines resulting in large parts of the program becoming redundant for Fashion use, Adobe Photoshop still remains the best possible, most affordable and preferred alternative package with the capacity for long-term use. The challenge arises where the lecturer is required to teach students against the backdrop of the problems mentioned above. Curricula rarely keep up with industry requirements and the onus falls on the lecturer to employ methods and tools to adapt and change within the confines of the curriculum structure itself. Software instruction should ideally take place in a manner that will aid the retention of the students user knowledge and be integrated with their project work. Resultantly, an innovative approach to teaching had to be developed and tested. v Observing, identifying and aiding the resolution of students learning problems place the lecturer within a participatory anthropological, natural environment. As such the research study was qualitative in nature. Appropriately, this study did not propose to merely better the current (inadequate) situation observed in the classroom. Instead, it created an entirely new learning environment aimed at addressing the students pre-determined and quantifiable needs through the student-centred teaching method of Concurrent Cycle Instruction (CCI). The chosen methodology: Design Research (DR), provided the framework against which the new CCI method could be tested and data relating to its efficacy could be gathered. The findings of the research study are based on an analysis of the data that was mined as part of the small-scale design experiment.

M.Tech. (Fashion) / Advanced studies in fashion design in South Africa have attracted little interest. Master’s studies are limited and doctoral studies are almost non-existent. This situation has resulted in the academic vulnerability of the discipline as a creative and commercial practice. In order to promote and expand research activities and advanced studies within fashion design at the University of Johannesburg, this study contends that it is necessary to develop a systematic understanding of the theoretical and practicing manifestations of fashion design in relation to the nature and process of design and fashion systems. In order to develop a deeper understanding of the interconnection between theory and practice, this study adopts a thematic style and a qualitative methodological approach to the examination of fashion design from the perspectives of history, theory and practice. The study synthesises key ideas from these areas and applies relevant frameworks to review the South African fashion system and to determine the theoretical orientation of selected advanced studies and research activities pursued over the last decade. The study proposes that considerations for the theoretical grounding of advanced studies in fashion design that could be taken into account include the need to: encourage an approach that accommodates the broader theoretical and practical dimensions of fashion design when engaging in advanced studies and research activities; view fashion design within the constellation of specialist design practices integral to ideas of a unitary discipline which could underpin and enrich advanced studies; adopt forward-oriented theoretical foundations for research and advanced studies which would ensure greater and more meaningful connections to practice; develop third- and fourth-order design theory and thinking in advanced studies in any discipline of design; take cognisance of developments in design theory concerning the nature and context of design problems and ensure an understanding of fashion systems and the multiple positioning of fashion designers within such systems.