How a Chinese PYP candidate school used design thinking to transform curriculum and culture through stakeholder-driven change
Driving school change during PYP candidacy is a complex challenge. It's even more difficult when the change should be stakeholder-driven but the school has roots in a traditional culture of top-down decision making.
Consultant feedback indicated the need to change from English to Mandarin Chinese for PYP authorization success
Changes would affect 550+ students and families and 70+ teachers mid-school year
Moving from top-down hierarchy to community-up decision making in a traditional Chinese educational context
Assembled stakeholders representing diverse perspectives, interests, and authority levels including teachers and administrators from local and international backgrounds.
Team training using resources from Stanford's d.school and Harvard's Graduate School of Education, practicing with hands-on exercises like designing an ideal tool belt.
Conducted surveys and empathy interviews with parents, teachers, and students, compiling data from hundreds of community members to understand real needs.
Team collaborated to imagine changes that would meet diverse stakeholder needs, balancing requirements from multiple user groups.
Two months of iterative cycles: adjusting plans, gathering feedback from teachers, students, and parents, and refining designs based on community input.
Broad restructuring of classes and creation of new small group and mentorship classes
Reallocated teacher roles based on preferences and abilities, developed new hiring criteria
Created specialized support for students of different English ability levels
Achieved unanimous support without needing approval - everyone was already on board
Successfully moved from top-down hierarchy to community-up decision making
Strongly positive feedback across the board from all stakeholder groups
With PTA support, changes were implemented at mid-year. The process solved anticipated curriculum challenges and unanticipated stakeholder problems while transforming school culture.
"Our team were NOT trained designers prior to going through this process... I fundamentally believe that any leadership team can learn to do what we did."
- Alex Makosz