I am Tamara Yuill Proctor (Head of Social Sciences), one of 10 Canterbury teachers who were awarded a Boma Education Fellowship.

This is a year-long programme. The programme is to help 10 educators bring exponential thinking, technology and innovative leadership into their schools. It is run outside of school hours, during the evenings and public and school holidays.

The aim of the programme is to create a project which has tangible outcomes that can be scaled to others in the education community.

It has been an amazing year of learning. During the April school holidays we went to California to visit a series of schools and organisations. Our first stop was High Tech High a school which delivers a project-based curriculum with a pathway focused on tertiary study. Next was June Jordan School of Equity which focused on youth participatory action research – fighting against institutional repression. Their mission is to not only prepare students for college but to be agents of change. The third school we visited was Palo Alto where we met Esther Wojcicki who established a media studies department run by students. Esther was an amazing person to meet with, as she had made so many contributions to the wider world of education. Besides the schools, we visited organisations such as Ideo and Google X where we could see innovative organisations working to create innovative products or solve complex issues.

The highlight for me was the two days we spent at the Stanford d School (Stanford University). David H Clifford who was recently in Christchurch for TedX, took us through Liberatory Design Thinking. This is an adaptation of Design Thinking which seeks to support designers to practice deep self-reflective awareness, share power with communities and practice design in more equitable ways. Liberatory Design Thinking builds on Design Thinking by requiring the designer to Notice, Empathize and Reflect as they move through the design process.

My project as part of the Boma Fellowship has seen me develop a micro-credential in Liberatory Design Thinking. A micro-credential is an online digital, archivable recognition of a skill often displayed as a digital badge with data sitting within it. The Liberatory Design Thinking Micro-Credential has four levels based on skill. I have been trialling this project with a Year 9 class at Hagley College who have been moving through the Liberatory Design Thinking process as they design a sustainable building as part of their learning. Students will be able to put together a portfolio at the end of the learning to showcase their skills. It is possible to gain a micro-credential in Liberatory Design Thinking but to also gain a micro-credential in an aspect of the process, such as ideation or prototyping.

I have had and continue to have an incredible year with the Boma Fellowship programme. This has led me to become involved in Learning City Christchurch and the micro-credential group. The other nine teachers involved have all created a variety of projects. They are an inspirational group of teachers who have a passion for education. The Boma team are innovative, supportive and create an environment where anything is possible. Christchurch Airport is a key sponsor and I have been lucky enough to be mentored by a variety of people from the Christchurch business community.

What’s next: I will be attending the Future of Learning conference in the school holidays, along with the other Boma Fellows, where we will be sharing our projects. My next step is to further develop the Liberatory Design Thinking Micro-Credential and have others trial it.

Boma New Zealand supports business leaders, politicians, educators, entrepreneurs, young people, and change-makers to navigate our rapidly changing world, so that we can be more intentional and intelligent about the future we’re creating.