The civic-minded instructional designers framework: An alternative approach to contemporary instructional designers’ education in higher education_1185

This paper argues that an emphasis on training-for-the-job approaches has distracted designers from thinking about the meaning of their profession and the grand purpose of practising instructional design. Drawing from literature in the fields of sociology and educational technology, this paper synthesises discourses on civic professionalism in instructional design and technology, and proposes a conceptual framework that highlights the roles and qualities of a civic-minded instructional designer. It is claimed that a critical discussion on civic professionalism in the field of educational technology can offer an alternative perspective on educating instructional designers, and have practical implications on instructional design and technology curricula in higher education. Practitioner notes What is already known about this topic: • Instructional design and technology (IDT) academics and scholars have acknowledged that the current gap in teaching IDT is the discrepancy between the way instructional design is practised in real-world situations and the way it is taught in IDT classrooms. • To address the gap, IDT academics and scholars have proposed authentic learning approaches into IDT education. • IDT literature is dominated by the perspective of preparing designers to be technically competent professionals, thus undermining designers’ transformative power to initiate