The Mayfield Project 2023 Workshop
The Mayfield Project is back in 2023 and this year’s participants are exploring how to support learning and space designers to authentically consider justice, equity, diversity and inclusion in their projects.
The project started with a call to action in February, following by a face-to-face workshop with NoTosh in March, and will continue on with a presentation at the 21st Annual Regional Conference re:Activate generating a city of learning conference in Christchurch in May. Make sure you’re there to hear from these passionate young people first hand. And if you see this year’s Mayfielders out and about at a LEA event, please say hi and welcome them to our community.
We would like to welcome our latest cohort of Mayfielders, joining an alumni of more than 150 past researchers, educators and designers. After an online-only format and a covid delay, The Mayfield Project is now back to a personal format and we are so looking forward to our passionate emerging professionals meeting together in person person to investigate how learning spaces can better embrace a JEDI (justice, equity, diversity and inclusion) mindset.
From over 50 applications across four countries, this year’s applicants all demonstrated the creativity, curiosity, dedication and drive to create better learning environments for our future learners and we can’t wait to see what they come up with over the next few months.
For more information, please click on the links below:
2023 Mayfield Cohort
We would like to welcome our latest cohort of Mayfielders, joining an alumni of more than 150 past researchers, educators and designers. After an online-only format and a covid delay, The Mayfield Project is now back to a personal format and we are so looking forward to our passionate emerging professionals meeting together in person person to investigate how learning spaces can better embrace a JEDI (justice, equity, diversity and inclusion) mindset.
From over 50 applications across four countries, this year’s applicants all demonstrated the creativity, curiosity, dedication and drive to create better learning environments for our future learners and we can’t wait to see what they come up with over the next few months. They will be presenting at the re:Activate conference in Christchurch in May – make sure you’re there to hear from these passionate young people first hand. And if you see this year’s Mayfielders out and about at a LEA event, please say hi and welcome them to our community.
March 2023 Workshop
How does the space we learn in amplify the sense of belonging we might all feel? And how does it accidentally diminish or quash a sense of inclusion and social justice, or eliminate the joy of the diversity that exists in almost every community today?
The team at NoTosh facilitated an intense three days of Learning Environments Australasia’s “Mayfield Project”. Some online prework saw twenty architects, designers and educators reunite in person in Hayball’s Sydney studio, ready to exchange their differing perspectives and understanding of what the jargon of “diversity / inclusion / justice / equity” might mean in practice for learning design, and the design of spaces in which learning happens.
We got them out of their heads and into the city to see how everyday design can unintentionally exclude so many people in so many ways. The “moments” they spotted showed that physical space, unwritten rules and information posted left, right and centre can, in spite of good intentions, leave a space lacking clarity, function or any sense of belonging.
Applying their insight back to what happens in schools, they were able to develop design principles that were neither so loose as to make any idea seem “DEIJ-friendly”, or so tight as to make creative ideas unfeasible.
And finally, with brains buzzing, ideas brewing for live projects and next week’s classes, we prompted them to think about rather story they want to tell, the experiments they want to undertake, the questions they need to ask.
In Christchurch, May 17-19 2023, the Mayfielders will present their findings and open source products they’ve designed to help any designers – designers of learning and space – to create more equitable experiences of learning that will help everyone feel they belong, that their learning and growth has even greater value than they feel it does today.
Article by: NoTosh (Workshop Facilitators)