Millstone or milestone? The perceived value of cultural studies for art and design students and teachers

The aim of this paper is to explore the conceptions held by students and teaching staff about the value of cultural studies to art and design courses. Research methods for this study included a phenomenographic analysis of twelve in-depth interviews with academic staff and forty visual representations produced by students in response to a question about the perceived relationship between cultural studies and their main course of study. Both interview transcriptions and visual images were analysed using a phenomenographic approach in order to ascertain the critical differences in the way that the subject was experienced and valued. This paper discusses the categories of description that emerged and considers the implications of these multiple conceptions for the teaching of cultural studies within art and design courses.