Our Work

How might we… foster intrapreneurial mindsets in teacher candidates? Design a school that provides dynamic learning experiences for students? Support rural teachers in increasing student engagement?

The Design Initiatives team brings principled innovation to educational systems through collaborative, design-based problem-solving.

We believe the design process is a powerful approach to addressing challenges in education. We collaborate with partners across the education landscape to develop mindsets and cultures that value creativity and intrapreneurship--creating change and taking risks to improve an organization from within.

Our goals:

• Work with partners to design innovative solutions to educational challenges
• Build capacity in our partners for intrapreneurial thinking and bringing a designer’s mindset to problem-solving
• Provide professional learning opportunities that are grounded in local contexts while encouraging a global and future-oriented vision

Our Approach

In our work, we view schools and other educational organizations as complex social systems with multiple stakeholders involved in defining their goals, functions and processes. These systems face challenges that are fraught with ambiguity and complexity and vary based on their specific contexts.

We use an intentional, collaborative, open-ended design process that starts with building relationships and learning deeply about what matters to stakeholders. This new form of professional learning for educators and leaders is an iterative process that gives control of change and innovation to those closest to the challenges. We value action guided by empathy, diverse perspectives and experimentation.

Our Partners

At ASU

We work with students, staff and faculty at Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College and throughout ASU to bring the design process and intrapreneurial thinking into courses, programs of study, strategic planning and our daily work.

In the community

We partner with schools, school districts and community organizations to collaboratively design new approaches to challenges and build capacity for principled innovation.