This week I began exploring the Project Zero Justice by Design framework. It is one of the more recent PZ initiatives, described as a collision of systems thinking and maker-centred learning. “Educators co-developed maker-centered classroom tools that support young people to develop a sensitivity to injustices in design, consider the roles of power, participation, history, and context in designs and (re)designs, and reimagine oppressive systems they encounter—such as racism, ableism, xenophobia, heterosexism, and others.”

The online course I participated in this week focused on Redesigning Unjust Systems. It commenced with some community agreements and they are worth sharing –

1) Expect and accept a lack of closure (& recognise this as a gift)

2) Move up, move up (economy of sharing)

3) Use “I” statements and beware of collective “we” statements

4) What we say in here stays in here.

Sheya began by orienting us to resistance, pointing out that because the status quo assumes professionalism, merely dressing casually can be seen as an act of resistance. She described it as a small big act of resistance and she spoke about the power of everyday choices. Eyes are on us, we have privilege, our stories are heard, we can chip away at the status quo.

I tried to capture some of the ways we can break down oppression and make space for more voices to seats of power that were discussed – courageous/deliberate acts, looking closely and questioning, being willing to get uncomfortable, working though pain to joy, surfacing difficult historical truths, reconstructing views, illuminating past narratives, and becoming more intentional about our participation.

In the second online session, Sheya emphasised that society is made up of unjust systems and oppression is a global force. JxD has application across cultures and communities. It is not asking who has power. Power is not a binary, everyone has some type of power. Systems have power too. It’s about asking how will I participate differently? What is my responsibility? It is encouraging young people to disrupt and challenge designs, and supporting students for specific acts that disrupt patterns of power. The first step is to develop a sensitivity to designed injustices.

Jaime Chao Mignano has written a brilliant post outlining the global debate about the fate of monuments and how we might value the voices of communities adding their own truth to a contested history. She points out that in artist Kaphar’s 2017 TED Talk, ‘Can Art Amend History?’, he asks us to “amend our public sculptures, our national monuments” in order to deepen our historical narrative. This post from the National Art Gallery of Australia, shows artists in Australia have been doing similar work.

Jaime describes this critical historical mending, as “mending together stories that challenge each other in a way that does not obscure or patch over their conflict. We ask students to tell the history of the systems within the piece, affirm the entirety of the struggle(s) and take their own stand.” So it is more about redesign than erasure, ensuring that the the critical history lens is maintained by situating the story, not pretending it didn’t exist. It is about illuminating truth and creating more space.

Ultimately JxD is about designing curriculum that empowers students. The key contention is that when young people are supported to recognise inequities in everyday design we are helping them to reimagine a more just world. Key concepts are: representation, voice, different types of power, systems (it is important to work on ‘systems muscles’ with students early on), and the concept of critical mending.

A series of routines has been developed and I will be using these to teach rights and freedoms to my Year 9 history classes this semester:

Parts, Purposes, Complexities (for looking closely)

Parts, People, Interactions (for exploring complexity) – I have used this routine before to teach the causes of the First World War (it didn’t work too well when I only had one lesson on the topic with Year 9, when I had a few weeks with Year 11 it was perfect).

Voice and Choice (for developing a sensitivity to what and who is not represented)

People, Systems, Power, Participation (for looking critically at content and developing a sensitivity to the roles of power and participation)

Inquiry Cycle (for documenting).

This work will be a catalyst for social change and I can’t wait to learn more.