Abstract: A major initiative of the Diversity Champions Group is to host workshops on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion-related issues in the design of learning environments. This year’s workshop will build upon the success of the workshop session held at LearningSCAPES 2023 and lead into subsequent online workshops at various levels of the organization, including regional and chapter conferences.

The goal of these workshops is to go beyond raising awareness of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion – to identify and generate specific, useful, and actionable ideas for implementing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion into design processes and design outcomes. Participants will be asked to consider how inherent bias creates our architecture – and schools in particular – as they explore a broad range of topics. Following are topics and top 3-5 action items from last year that we will build upon:

Topic 1 – Welcoming and Belonging:

1. Materiality – transforming historical trauma.
2. Involving oneself into the community for authentic understanding.
3. Addressing learning styles of different students – e.g. different entries for different moods and needs.
4. Remembering we were kids – scale of beds and buildings.

Topic 2 – Integrating Health and Wellness for All Learners:

1. Best practices – identify and share. Funding will follow. Lack of health professionals – feed the pipeline. Share issues.
2. Add wellness and advocacy to the master plan.
3. Partner with nonprofits. Integrate school and community.

Topic 3 – Normativity (Gender and Hetero):

1. Empower students to educate adults.
2. Be willing to engage in difficult conversations – bring authentic self to the team and community.
3. Be comfortable with the mess and chaos of learning and life – be empathetic – what systems are needed?

Topic 4 – Climate Justice:

1. Understand existing data – climate, park access, air quality – and how best to present.
2. Advocate for policy changes – permeability, tree canopy, find other advocates.
3. Plan for resiliency – make it a design determinant – fire, flooding, wind – what systems are needed?

Topic 5 – Students Facing Housing and Food Insecurity:

1. Prioritize dignity of spaces for students needing services. Don’t hide. Normalize. Make it accessible.
2. Offer and provide whole school services underpinned by community partners who are experts.
3. Community awareness campaigns – spread the word, educate with stats. Costs are lower if issues.

The groups will be formed around these and additional topics to take a deeper dive for focused discussion and exploration on one topic per group. Each group will be facilitated by an A4LE Diversity Champion who will report out to the whole group at the end.

Please bring your ideas, questions, and challenges you see in specific areas of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion – a word, thought, sketch, or photograph. If there is a topic you would like to be discussed in a small group, please reach out to the individuals listed with your suggestion. After the conference, your discussions, ideas, and solutions will be compiled into a report to be published online as part of a compilation of reports from past workshops.

Learning Objectives:

1. Develop awareness of a broad spectrum of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in design processes and outcomes.
2. Develop the capacity to identify and address issues of diversity in design processes and outcomes.
3. Learn to consider alternative experiences and perceptions of design processes and outcomes.
4. Develop awareness of key considerations to consider when designing for equity and inclusion of diverse stakeholders.