SI Fellow Designing the Future of Education

Since the establishment of the Smithsonian-Queensland Fellowship Program in 2000, the collaborative effort of the Smithsonian Institution and the Australian State of Queensland Government, more than 40 recipients of this annual grant benefited from the educational opportunities offered by the program.

One of the 2015 fellowship alumni, Dawn Boland, carried out her research at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum (CHNDM) in New York. Having over 20 years of experience in education, Ms. Boland is presently teaching the Study of Society and Environment at John Paul College, Brisbane. During her time with the CHNDM she worked on developing design-based pedagogical practices and strategies to incorporate at all stages of the educational process from curriculum building to teachers’s professional growth. Dawn believes that introducing “new ways of thinking and challenging how we teach our students” will help to foster positive changes in the local Queensland community.

“The most liberating part of this experience was the immersion into the world of design, not just artistic design… much more, systems, feedback, prototyping, manufacturing, thinking, procedures, communication, brainstorming, innovation and the list goes on and on,” Dawn shares in her interview with the State Library of Queensland.

To find out more about Dawn’s experience as a Fellow check out her recent post on the DesignMinds blog dedicated to innovative approaches in education.

Dawn Boland with her students at John Paul College, Brisbane.