The program in a nutshell
Design for Diversity is an experiential learning program that integrates international students in the senior years of high-school by increasing their agency and visibility.
Why Design for Diversity?
International students are a great opportunity for Australian schools. From a purely economic perspective, they support enrolment numbers – but the real opportunity lies deeper. International students bring a new cultural perspective that enriches the experience of other students in their year level and beyond. Over the longer term, their presence can yield precious knowledge about other cultures and rich international networks for other students
However, a range of obstacles stand in the way. Language and cultural differences often make it difficult for international students to thrive socially and academically. Distant or recently migrated families provide limited support to face an unfamiliar environment. Teachers and other students do not always know how to best engage with them.
As a result, international students are often seen as a problem.
At best, their academic and social integration somewhat lags behind – but in many cases, they spend their entire school years invisible, isolated and alienated. The challenge that this program aims to address is therefore this: how do we welcome international students as equal and valued participants in the school community, so that they have the most fruitful experience, and the school community most benefits from their presence?
What is Design for Diversity?
Design for Diversity is an experiential learning program that integrates international students in the senior years of high-school by increasing their agency and visibility. The program brings together international students at senior year levels (10-12) and local students from year 11, who work in small mixed teams.
Over six weekly sessions of 1h30, participants are guided through a systematic design thinking process, and invited to develop an original solution to the following challenge: ‘how to spend more quality time with people who are different from us’. On the last week of the program, students present their ideas to a panel of fellow students and teachers, and some of those student-led initiatives are then implemented in the rest of the year.
The design thinking method that underpins design for diversity is directly inspired by the model of the THNK School of Creative Leadership in Amsterdam, and closely aligns with the models of IDEO and the Stanford School of design. The program consists of the following modules:
Week 1: Embark on a journey: build group purpose – celebrate diversity – engage on a mission – form teams
Week 2: Your team superpower: explore team diversity and consider dimensions of the problem
Week 3: Nailing your challenge: reframe the problem – bring pieces together – formulate a creative question
Week 4: Get wild with you ideas: explore solution space – open idea generation
Week 5: Pick a winner:select two favourite ideas – articulate value propositions
Week 6: Pitch it till you make it: prototyping session and general reflection
What are the outcomes?
The design process helps students embrace complexity and ambiguity, and develop a habit of delaying solution-seeking to better investigate the dimensions of a problem. Students learn to value diversity as the basis for innovation, and all participants – local and international – are better able to articulate and value what makes them different from others.
As a result of the program, international students are more ready to speak in and outside class and apply for leadership positions. Interactions between international and local students increase, and new friendship groups form. Teachers are more likely to notice, understand and address the needs of international students who – in turn – are better able to articulate their specific needs and challenges. The program thus repositions international students as active and visible participants in the school community – from problem to subject. Benefits extend beyond program participants to the entire school community, which becomes more culturally inclusive.
Design for diversity was first piloted at Ivanhoe Girls' Grammar School, as a partnership with Marco Polo Project. The original design team brought together Julien Leyre, founder/CEO Marco Polo Project and Lisa Toomey, international student coordinator at Ivanhoe Girls' Grammar School. A second pilot was successfully conducted in 2018. We are now looking for partner schools to further develop the program.
