Miniministry of Education
DESIGN: Klara Malinowska, Oliwia Warchałowska
Poland
make me! 2023
While creativity is mentioned among the basic competences of the citizen of the future, the Polish education system does not teach creative attitudes.
We tested the potential of design as a detector and filler of system gaps in series of research-workshops in primary school common room. In line with the idea of participatory design, together with children, we were looking for answers about dreams and unsatisfied needs related to school space. This led us to the goal: reaffirming the value of children as experts in their own cause. Thus, we restored primary school students sense of agency and by stimulating them to think freely we released their underrated creativity.
The results of the process are: solutions in the field of workshop education, a proposal of common room rearrangement, pouffes as an interference in uncomfortable space, armor-like outfits that respond to forgotten needs and conclusion that including design into education system is a real strategy for its bottom-up change.
Miniministry of Education, design: Klara Malinowska, Oliwia Warchałowska / from designer’s archive
Miniministry of Education, design: Klara Malinowska, Oliwia Warchałowska / from designer’s archive
Miniministry of Education, design: Klara Malinowska, Oliwia Warchałowska / from designer’s archive
Miniministry of Education, design: Klara Malinowska, Oliwia Warchałowska / from designer’s archive
Klara Malinowska,
Oliwia Warchałowska
Coming from Łódź and Wrocław. They had started studying at School of Form in Poznań, before they moved to Warsaw, where they graduated with the project “Miniministry of Education” (2022).
They look for design reaching beyond aesthetic value. They believe in possibilities of identifying and addressing social issues using design tools. In their process they engage with people, who are entangled in a flawed and often ineffective system, which can however be influenced by local bottom up initiatives.
