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and followed brainstorming protocols. Finally, participants were prompted to
action. They had the opportunity to articulate the redesign of some aspect of their
school. They committed to exploring solutions further and taking small steps toward
creating more equitable schools within their own environments. As they engaged
in design thinking, they acted as social-justice leaders who made issues that affect
historically marginalized students part of their advocacy, vision, and leadership
practices (Theoharis, 2007).

Additional Applications: Theory to Practice
Samples of how some students incorporated design-thinking concepts into their
work as educators and school leaders may provide further insight. For example,
when Alicia was a principal intern, she worked with the school’s assistant principal
to redesign the school’s approach to engaging parents from diverse backgrounds.
They conducted individual and focus-group interviews and incorporated the parents’
ideas into their meetings. This included more time for connection with each other
and more feedback loops so that parents could have more voice in improving the
middle school. Likewise, Jenn had the opportunity to redesign the master schedule at
the elementary school where she recently became the assistant principal. She worked
with the leadership team to start with students’needs and then ideate wild ideas and
creative solutions. She reported that it was a great way to introduce the design-
thinking process at the school and help the team break out of their old patterns of
thinking. They stopped saying, “We tried that once,” “That won’t work for me,”
or “This is the way we have always done it” to focus on innovative ways to meet
students’ needs for interventions and enrichment. As another example, although
not leading the process, Keely practiced her flexible thinking recently at a design
collaborative hosted by the state department of education. Constituents from across
the state—including mental health workers, counselors, school administrators, and
teachers—came together to rethink ways to distribute grant funds so that schools
could more seamlessly support students rather than compartmentalizing academic,
behavioral, and social-emotional supports for students. Although the process took
time, it allowed leaders to let go of their own needs and develop student-centered
solutions that would support students across the state. These examples show a small
slice of how design thinking might be used within educational settings and for
organizational improvement.

Conclusion
My journey with design thinking started several years ago when I attended a
workshop and experienced the process with a team of educators. A few years later,
my oldest child attended Olin College of Engineering and was energized about many
projects that involved user-based design. Since that time, I have facilitated the process
with various groups, from teachers building online courses for the first time to faculty
groups wanting better ways to mentor new educators. While I have continued to read
and learn, design thinking has evolved. Liberatory Design and EquityXDesign are
newer versions of design thinking developed within the last 6 years. Here are some
websites with free resources for people wanting to learn more or get started with this
powerful concept:
• Resources from d.school at Stanford: https://dschool.stanford.edu/resources
• IDEO’s Design Thinking for Educators Toolkit: http://designthinkingforeducators.
com/

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