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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


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