education | School for Creating Change

2015 Come Out Children’s Festival – A city for Whoo

Created by Angelique Edmonds for the School for Creating Change, the world premiere experimental urban walking trail allowed kids to explore and discover how city spaces are created and for whom.

Running over nine days, from May 22-30, the Come Out Children’s Festival was created to engage, stimulate, challenge, educate and entertain young minds.

“Exposure to the arts fosters creativity in our children,” said Premier of South Australia Jay Weatherill. “Creativity helps children cope with change and makes them more resilient, it also encourages critical thinking which is one of the great strengths of South Australia’s world leading education system.”

10 minute studio visits by groups of school children were hosted throughout the festival by Alex Hall, Anoop Menon, Emily Anderson, Mel Hunter, Milos Milutinovic, Sarah Howden, Simon Tothill, Stuart Uren and Thomas Masullo. They explained what an architect does as well as the design behind local Woods Bagot projects such asSAHMRI, Adelaide Convention Centre, Vue on King William and City Central Tower 1, Tower 2 and Tower 8.

The Come Out Children’s Festival is produced and presented by Adelaide Festival Centre and is supported by the Government of South Australia through Arts SA and the Department for Education and Child Development.

More on the 2015 Come Out Children’s Festival

Images courtesy: Ryan Cantwell Photography

Full Article courtesy Woods Bagot

free place on our catalyst course for a lucky winner!

We’re offering a lucky winner a free place on the next Catalyst course (usually $1400) which starts Feb 10th – think this could be you? then read on for how to enter and why we’re sharing this opportunity with you.

I’ve been reading, revisiting some wisdom from Ken Robinson lately (some of you may know his TED talk on how Schools kill creativity, its had over 21 million views), and in that video (and his books) he shares many insights- including this one:

If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original

It may seem like an obvious statement, but if you have a change project in mind, you may find this time of year, on the edge of new possibilities that your momentum can stall. Many of our best procrastination techniques kick in when we’re on the edge of doing something really important. And this can happen for many reasons, but the biggest is fear of failure.

When it comes to Innovation and creating change though; the only failure is if you don’t try.

Change is a process, you become a success because you try- you get started, and you allow your idea to develop. You iterate which is to adjust and improve as you go, as the process unfolds.

In 2014 we want to make sure that if you have a great idea for a change project, or if there’s something you see that could be done better and you have an inkling of where the possibility for improvement lies………that you get yourself juiced up with the tools to get started and make it happen!

Starting Febuary 10th, we’re offering a course called Catalyst, which will walk you through the Design thinking process, apply it to your idea and get you into action. Design thinking is about believing we can make a difference and having an intentional process in order to get to new, relevant solutions that create positive impact. Its a structured approach to generating and evolving ideas.

Our Catalyst course is a sequence of 4 workshops spaced over 2 weeks. It begins with full day workshops on Feb 10th, then 12th, 13th and final workshop is on Feb 20th. It will be held in Peel St in Adelaide’s CBD.

The workshop price is $1400. In 2014 we want to make sure that everyone who dreams for change, has the opportunity to discover their agency and realise the change they dream of. So we’re offering you the chance to win a place on the course in a special competition so you can start your year of change on the right foot.

Here’s how you can enter

Email the following to hello@schoolforcreatingchange.com by 6pm on Feb 1st.

1. What is the change project you want to get started on? (In strictly 50 words or less)

It can be challenging to write it succinctly, so make a cup of tea and give yourself 10-15 minutes to do this. At first just write down the words that flow as you type or as it comes out of your pencil or pen.

Then review what you wrote, and try to concentrate the who, what, when, where, why elements of it to a phrase each. Eg. Who is it targeting?, when do you want to do it (in summer, during the next 12 months etc), what change are you seeking (in a phrase), where (where will you see the results? in a particular place or online or as evidenced by what benchmark/outcome or change?)

2. Why is it important to you to get started on it now? (and who if any are your collaborators or team) (In strictly 50 words or less)

Applicants must be able to attend all 4 days of the course as advertised on Feb 10, 12, 13 & 20^th.

The most passionately sought, innovative and promising entry will be offered a place on the Feb 2014 Catalyst course.

Conditions: The Winner’s place on the course is not transferable to any other course or at any other time. The winner must be able to attend all 4 days of the course as advertised on Feb 10, 12, 13 & 20^th.

Winner will be announced on School for Creating Change Facebook page on Feb 2^nd

We can’t wait to hear about the change project you’ve been thinking of and for you to join us for Catalyst in Feb, so we look forward to hear from you just email hello@schoolforcreatingchange.com

SFCC awarded by SIXAUS Changemakers Festival

SIXAUS Changemakers Festival is a celebration of great work happening in Australia, an exploration of the ideas, people, and technologies driving change, and an invitation for everyone to get involved in creating a better future. The school for creating change event at the 2013 SIXAUS Changemakers Festival was the awarded Most Supporters in South Australia category of the Changemakers Festival Crowdfunding Challenge.

Celebrating the Changemakers Festival 2013 from TACSI on Vimeo.

design as a process – design thinking to enable agency

I’ve been thinking for a while now about the value of design as a process

Many people think that design is really about products.

Interestingly though, a beautiful, effective and easy to use product, program or service is often only conceived effectively because of a rigorous design process. And the design process is what puts Design Thinking into action.

So its not surprising that many people are increasingly interested in how we might apply design thinking to address some of the world’s greatest challenges of climate and resource crises and to growing financial and cultural inequality in society.

Essentially Design thinking is about believing we can make a difference, and having an intentional process in order to get to new, relevant solutions that create positive impact.

As a tertiary design educator and long time advocate assisting people to explore their own agency, I’ve been looking more closely at innovation in education for people of all ages and exploring the use of design thinking to enable their agency. In 2013 I visited 6 inspirational schools around the world breaking new ground in creative entrepreneurship, whilst I was researching, planning and benchmarking the approach we’ve taken with the School for Creating Change.

So let me share with you just how inspirational those schools are.

Stop 1: in April was an education conference in Dublin, where amongst many others, I met two extraordinary Persians; Pantea & Farid who were independently doing great work at that time, and now working together in Qatar. Pantea works with Peace Jam that facilitates youth and Nobel Peace Laureates working together to change the world. Amazing stuff. More on that in a future post.

Stop 2: London. This was an opportunity to reconnect with friends with whom I studied in the late 90s and early 2000s, and to embark on new adventures attending class at The School of Life. From a humble little shop front in Marchmont St WC1, The School of Life are sharing great ideas for everyday life, offering the philosophical treasure of centuries with convenience store accessibility. Started by Alain DeBoton, they’ve published a basic curriculum around themes of our contemporary conundrums; satisfaction at work, in relationships, making a difference in the world and so on. Their courses are generally evenings or a one day workshop, and the courses I attended were inspiring and prompted lively debate and discussion. Their pop up school in Melbourne last summer was also very popular, their 12 week program of courses sold out in the first few weeks and they’re considering a more permanent school in Melbourne for the future. Great news for Australians!

Stop 3: Aarhus Denmark to visit the Kaospilots,

This school really has soul, Kaospilots is a polymath approach for fostering leadership, creativity and entrepreneurship. Started by Uffe Elbaek over 20 years ago, Kaospilots offer an education not so much about breaking people in to fit in the future, but giving them opportunity to create their own future. In April they were still in their original home, with well worn studio spaces and walls lined with the faces of 20 years of alumni who’d completed the 3 year program they offer. They’ve since moved to new premises, and remain passionate about helping people realize their values and their dreams, helping them navigate change & uncertainty, tapping into their creativity and potential, finding their direction, and supporting them to get going. This approach seems to flourish in the cultural context of Denmark, where students are highly engaged and actively take charge of their learning.

Stop 4: Singapore The School of Thought

The School of Thought is an initiative within The Thought Collective, alongside other initiatives; Food for Thought, Think Tank, Think Scape and Common Ground. Each of these seeks to operationalize their aims in different ways; to develop knowledge, empathy and initiative in Singapore’s youth. Their leadership team relies on skills of head, heart and gut instinct and ensure a democracy of all 3. Many schools traditionally focus on the mind only, and the approach at The School of Thought is exceptionally inspiring. Their philosophy is that belief is the capital that begins all human endeavor and that having faith, allowing miracles, saying yes, taking responsibility and trusting your intuition all require an emotional mastery which they have seen the value in learning. For over ten years they’ve been engaged in civic education at a critical time in the social and political history of Singapore and an awakening of her people’s agency. The school’s interest in fostering empathy and civic responsibility is refreshing, since these are qualities that were overlooked in the focus of Singapore’s recent thrust to become a first world Asian country- during which time they prioritized financial/economic growth.

So that is a round up of the first trip of 2013, the second trip in July took in schools in Switzerland, Italy & the third trip to SIX and a visit to a school in South Korea. I’ll share more on those in my next post. What is really inspiring about all this is that we are fortunate to be living in an era of extraordinary possibility. Systems change can be hard when everything is working, and people are generally satisfied with the status quo, but when we are faced with crises in our systems, there’s an opening, an opportunity to innovate and put forward new possibilities. We’re in that moment, in the belly of great opportunities.

So after a year of gestation and visits to other inspirational schools breaking new ground in creative entrepreneurship, the School for Creating Change has now launched! And we’ve mapped some exciting terrain to explore up ahead. So come and join us, don’t be shy- please get in touch. Everything in the world started simply from a conversation. As Margaret Mead famously reminded us

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.