Learning History through Making: Project-Based Learning and Embodied Historical Knowledge in Vocational Fashion Education for Theatre Community

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-624-6_22How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Embodied Historical Knowledge; Experiential Learning; Costume Design; Project-based Learning; Vocational Fashion Education

Abstract

This study examines how Project-Based Learning (PBL) generates historical knowledge differently across student roles within a cross-disciplinary, academic-industry collaboration in vocational fashion education. Based on a collaboration between Politeknik Kreatif Indonesia (ESMOD Jakarta) and Yayasan Teater Abang None Jakarta (Teater Abnon), the study observes how students from the Creative Business and Fashion Design programs engaged with Indonesia’s pre-independence visual and material culture through distinct but interconnected roles within a single PBL cycle. The project centred on the preparation of Gelora Muda, a stage production by Teater Abnon depicting Indonesian youth struggle surrounding the pre-independence period. Creative Business students initiated the cycle by conducting digital research on the period’s visual context, producing a research deck that served as the design foundation for the Fashion Design students, who then interpreted, reconstructed, and materialised this knowledge into costume prototypes for the production’s historical-timeline characters. The study draws on David Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle as an a priori analytical framework and hybrid thematic analysis as the coding method, mapping student learning across both programs. Data were collected through visual documentation, including sketches and photographic records; two retrospective focus-group discussions with photo elicitation conducted separately with each student group; and an online interview with a Teater Abnon representative, whose perspectives as collaborator and cultural practitioner helped triangulate the student accounts. A clear asymmetry between the two student groups was revealed in the findings, where the Creative Business students, who engaged with the material solely through digital research, confirmed their prior assumptions and knowledge about the assigned period, with little change in understanding after the project ended. By contrast, the Fashion Design students, pushed by the naturally iterative demands of making, underwent genuine historical knowledge transformation, developing contextual understanding such as the factors influencing why people dress the way they did rather than merely what the era looked like. This study suggests that, within this single case, cross-disciplinary, cross-program collaboration between vocational students and a theatre community as a cultural industry partner can support a participatory, embodied, and socially grounded approach to history education. However, the effect can become more significant when it involves direct, making-based engagement within the learning process. In this case, the relatability of the historical context to the learners’ national identity also enhances understanding through its particular resonance in Indonesia, where the pre-independence era remains a living part of its cultural and civic identity.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Mega Saffira
AU  - Stella Paramitha Budiarjo
AU  - Tatang Khalid Mawardi
AU  - Marco Rene Humolta
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/19
TI  - Learning History through Making: Project-Based Learning and Embodied Historical Knowledge in Vocational Fashion Education for Theatre Community
BT  - Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on History, Social Sciences, and Education (ICHSE 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 304
EP  - 322
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-624-6_22
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-624-6_22
ID  - Saffira2026
ER  -