When designing change in a district, leaders hear directly from students, families, teachers, and classified staff (i.e., those most impacted by teaching and learning) via empathy interviews. They then must make sense of those interviews to better understand the challenge they’re solving for, from the perspective of those most directly impacted. This protocol from IDEO guides teams to share learnings from interviews and look for patterns.
These discussion questions accompany the Activity: Making Sense of Empathy Interviews strategy card.
These discussion questions accompany the Activity: Reflect on Equity in Your Process strategy card.
Through their redesign work, Monterey Peninsula Unified School District has explored deepening personal relationships and students’ feelings of connection within the school community. The design team knew that such personal relationships and feeling of connection are important foundations for student engagement and student learning – but that too often, there are inequities in terms of which groups of students feel most supported and connected to school.
The team conducted research to better understand the equity implications of personal relationships and students’ sense of belonging. They also explored options for adapting their district structures and processes to better prioritize the work of building these relationships and connections; for example, the team reviewed staffing and scheduling changes other districts had made so as to build intentional structures for relationship-building.
Phoenix Charter Academy’s redesign sought to support and equip their teachers to implement their unique model, which supports disconnected youth through competency-based learning and significant social-emotional supports. Therefore, the design team focused empathy interviews on teachers, asking for perspectives on how each interviewee defined excellent teaching and learning, what experiences gave staff the feeling they were making an impact in students’ lives, and what their experiences had been with the network’s approach to teacher development and support. As they invited input on teachers’ past experiences, they also sought teachers’ ideas about the future, including what they’d like to see done “bigger, better, or differently.” In doing so, the design team expanded their understanding of the challenges they were facing.
Monterey Peninsula Unified School District’s redesign focused on deepening personal relationships and students’ feelings of connection within the school community. To figure out how to realize this vision, the design team planned group empathy interviews with a diverse array of stakeholders, including students, parents, and teachers, emphasizing inclusion for historically underrepresented groups like Spanish-speaking families.
Additionally, in keeping with their board’s stated goal to listen to and engage with all stakeholders, the cabinet held an “empathy interview board meeting” where they invited students, staff, and teachers to respond to interview questions in a town hall format. This brought important voices and insights to an even broader audience – including powerful decision-makers like board members – and built deeper connections among community members through personal interviews.
Mastery Charter Schools’ redesign sought to integrate blended learning and culturally-responsive teaching. Translating that model into specifics would require input from a variety of stakeholders: students, teachers, and families. The design team carefully considered who to interview, how to ensure that interviewees felt authentically heard, and what questions to ask to get specific input. The team conducted multiple rounds of interviews, intentionally seeking out the voices of disengaged students, in particular.
Cedar Rapids Community School District (CRCSD) knew the data: there were stark academic outcome gaps across demographic groups in the district. To explore the root causes of these gaps, CRCSD conducted interviews with affected students and teachers, designing an interview guide that would evoke stories and emotion from those whom the system was not working well for. These conversations not only helped shed light on the problem but also surfaced ideas about what it would take to close gaps. Given CRCSD’s existing strategic plan and annual focus on standards, assessment, and grading, the team also included targeted questions about students’ and teachers’ experiences with these systems in particular.
When designing change in a district, it is essential that leaders hear directly from students, families, teachers, and classified staff (i.e., those most impacted by teaching and learning). This guide from the Stanford d.school provides in-depth guidance about how to best plan for and conduct empathy interviews, which are powerful ways to elicit student, family, teacher, and classified staff perspectives.
When designing change in a district, it is essential that leaders hear directly from students, families, teachers, and classified staff (i.e., those most impacted by teaching and learning). This guide includes a starting set of questions you can ask to evoke stories and emotions to better understand the experiences of people in your district, and in doing so, understand where to focus redesign work. The template is meant to be used as part of Activity: Conduct Empathy Interviews with Stakeholders.
