DESIGNING REFLECTION: LEARNING ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY IN SMALL CRAFT-BASED DESIGN FIRMS

Small craft-based design firms must address sustainability as a condition for long-term viability, yet training often remains expert-led, prioritising factual knowledge over reflective and organisational learning. This gap is critical in small firms, where tacit knowledge, cross-functional dynamics, and hierarchies shape how sustainability is understood and applied. This study examines how a design-based training programme can foster inclusive organisational learning by activating higher-order and metacognitive processes across roles. Grounded in Anderson and Krathwohl’s Taxonomy, it adopts an interventionist single-case study in a small Italian fashion firm. A three-day immersive, screen-free programme used narrative, visual artefacts, and collaborative reflection to support progression toward evaluative and strategic thinking. Qualitative data from observations, external notes, and questionnaires show participants developed analytical, evaluative, and shared strategic intentions. Visual reflection helped surface tacit knowledge and co-create meaning, positioning design-based pedagogy as a driver of collective learning and organisational sense-making and offering a transferable model for engineering and design education, where sustainability learning can move beyond knowledge transmission toward evaluative and metacognitive competences.