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might we create and lead more equitable schools?” In this unit, I had three goals
for these future school leaders: (a) to learn about design thinking as an emerging
pedagogy that K–12 teachers are implementing in classrooms, (b) to conceptualize
how they could use design thinking as an approach to the adaptive challenges in
their work, and (c) to have a transformative educational experience to move their
espoused values regarding social-justice leadership to theories of action.
I used a specific model of design thinking called Liberatory Design Thinking
that is an iteration of the d.school model (Shanks, 2010). Liberatory Design
Thinking (Anaissie et al., 2021; Clifford, 2017) was created through the realization
that approaches to equity work often lack a powerful approach to design and
creativity and that design thinking can often fail to address root causes of inequity
and can reproduce inequitable power relationships. Liberatory Design Thinking
adds intentional awareness and reflection regarding the designers’ beliefs and biases
about the users and their contexts beyond what may be typical in design thinking
through two additional phases: notice and reflect.
The students in the educational leadership program were predominantly White
individuals who worked in schools, charter organizations, and school districts
with student populations including up to 60% from minoritized populations. The
participants experienced the phases of the Liberatory Design Thinking process—
notice, empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test,
and reflect—as part of class activities. In the
notice phase, students made observations about Instructors can use design
self-identity, implicit bias, and imbalances
of power. In the empathy phase, participants thinking as a pedagogy to move
explored first-hand accounts of the inequities in
education through encounters with underserved students beyond learning theory
students through texts, videos, and interviews.
Students worked individually and in groups and memorizing content.
to design several interventions that could
lead to more equitable opportunities, access,
and outcomes for students, families, and staff in the ideation and prototyping
phases. Although the test phases were not feasible within the confines of the course,
I followed up with students to see what solutions they had attempted within their
workplaces. Students practiced critical self-reflection throughout the design process
through class discussions and individual written reflections.
I have implemented this design thinking unit with several groups of students.
Each class has generated between 250 and 400 possible ideas to address equity in
schools. Depending on the delivery mode, some classes have used Sharpie markers
and sticky notes and others have used virtual tools like Google’s Jamboard (https://
jamboard.google.com/), a digital whiteboard, to brainstorm ideas. Figure 1 shows
the collection of ideas from one class. Note that the yellow sticky notes on the board
were their original ideas. The colored sticky notes were ideas generated through
constraint brainstorming, a tool in design thinking that helps designers see the issue
from different perspectives to break out of their usual ways of thinking. In this case,
students were “constrained” to generate wild ideas—those that cost at least $10,000,
required magical powers, or would appeal to middle school students.
Students’ ideas have addressed creating a climate of belonging, providing more
opportunities for student choice and voice, connecting with communities, attending
to safety and well-being concerns, and adding student and family supports. Students
Changing Perspectives on Teaching and Learning 9