Use empathy interviews as a professional development tool for shifting classroom practice towards rehumanizing mathematics¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 2 claims (2 for) · 1 study (1 qualitative), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 2 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The editorial reports that Lambert and Imm (2022) show how developing empathy can disrupt deficit narratives for veteran teachers and school leaders, and "offer empathy interviews as a professional development tool for shifting classroom practice towards rehumanizing mathematics." The strategy involves having teachers and leaders develop empathy in order to disrupt deficit narratives about students.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Teachers and school leaders must develop empathy for the strategy to disrupt deficit narratives

Constraints¶

Target Learners¶

• veteran teachers
• school leaders

Target Learning Goals¶

• Disrupting deficit narratives
• shifting classroom practice towards rehumanizing mathematics

Claims¶

• Educators in a UDL Math and Design Thinking professional development attributed shifts in their beliefs and practices to empathy, both as a value and as a practice of empathy interviews [+W]
• Classroom teachers spontaneously adopted empathy interviews outside the design thinking cycle, using them with students and families for relationship building [+W]

Related Strategies¶

• Facilitators should monitor vulnerability and call out emotional regimes to preempt deficit narratives in teacher PD
• Leveraging Strengths Thinking

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Chen, G. A., Vedder-Weiss, D., & Marshall, S. A. (2026). Introduction: the role of affect in STEM teacher learning. Instructional Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-026-09777-4