Begin with Empathy: The Power of Design Thinking to Amplify Teacher Voices

• In Event: Roundtable Session 2
  In Refereed Roundtable Session: Co-Constructing Spaces for Reimagining Learning in Glocal Partnerships for Teacher Development

Proposal

Driven by compounding factors like low salary, contentious political and cultural wars, pandemic-related stress, and teacher burnout, the U.S. public education system faces unprecedented staff shortages and concurrent declining enrollment in teacher preparation programs (Barnes, 2022). As of August 2022, U.S. school districts report hundreds to thousands of teacher vacancies (Natanson, 2022) with more than half of the nation’s current teachers indicating they plan to leave the profession earlier than planned (Jotkoff, 2022). Whereas salary and workload contribute to teachers’ job dissatisfaction, research suggests that teacher voice is one of the most significant factors in teacher attrition (García et al., 2022). Teacher voice not only improves retention, it also has positive effects on school climate and student achievement (Kahlenberg & Halley, 2014). When teachers’ voices are valued in decision-making, they feel a greater sense of belonging and connectedness in the school community. These teachers are also three times more likely to encourage their students’ autonomy and leadership development (QISA & TVAIC, 2015). Despite their importance, the voices of teachers are often marginalized in educational planning and decision-making in the U.S. and internationally (Gozali et al., 2017).

What role might teacher education play in developing preservice teachers’ self-identities and equipping them with strategies, experiences, and motivation to use their voices in educational spaces? This paper presents a case study of U.S. teacher candidates in an instructional design course participating in a semester-long guided professional development with experts in design thinking (DT). DT is a human-centered approach that supports collaborative decision-making necessary to build innovative school cultures where all stakeholder voices are valued, including teachers and students (Parker et al., 2021). More broadly, DT equips users (e.g., policymakers, school leaders, teachers, community members) with the skills and mindsets necessary to reimagine school models and systems (Diefenthaler et al., 2017). The study’s purpose was two-fold: (a) to engage future teachers in self-reflection about their own values and motivations that shape their practice and (b) to afford practical application of design thinking tools they can use to address complex problems in the profession, such as curriculum development and student, parent, or community issues, as well as tools for teaching and learning (Henriksen et al., 2017). By centering teacher voice, the study offers recommendations for teacher educators and school leaders to co-create alongside future teachers new human-centered educational paradigms and school models with equitable power structures and empathy at their core.

Author

• Elizabeth Crawford, UNCW