ABSTRACT
The paper discusses the teaching of design geared towards social innovation processes, identifying competencies required to work with this type of project. To arrive in these competencies, specialists were interviewed, crossing their answers with literature. To evaluate whether these competencies are being adequately taught, students from a social innovation-based course in a Portuguese graphic and product design undergraduate program were interviewed. The paper concludes the students find difficulties in working with projects of this nature, mainly for due to the fact that they spend most of the program working with a design process focused on results. We propose the competencies identified here should be worked on from the beginning of the program, stimulating earlier on practices like the interaction with communities and the problem identification process.
