This article explores the de-academization role in reshaping design education through a pluriversal lens, promoting a more inclusive and expansive approach to design learning. By challenging conventional frameworks, it emphasizes the importance of diversifying design history and moving away from established terminology rooted in traditional structures, specifically by introducing nature-centered design. The study investigates what academic and design education can learn from a pluriversal perspective, emphasizing models of horizontal learning and other design pedagogies that foster mutual knowledge exchange. Through these methods, the study emphasizes the value of vernacular and community-driven design practices, calling for a more cultural connection between design and society. Additionally, it critically examines whether these alternative expressions should be classified as “design” or if such categorization imposes an external framework. This raises essential ethical considerations, questioning whether defining these practices within institutional paradigms risks recolonizing what is meant to be decolonized. Finally, this research invokes a pedagogic turn that respects and includes diverse ways of knowing to enable a more equitable and reflective design discourse that moves beyond Western-centric narratives.