You Can Be Innovative Even When the System Discourages It

My friend Josh Stumpenhorst once wrote an excellent post about the chasm between what teachers are told to do and what teachers can actually accomplish in the system. One line in particular stood out to me. “They will insist that innovation, creativity, risk-taking and failure are things all teachers should be doing, pushing and encouraging in their classrooms.”

On some level, that’s me. I often advocate for creative risk-taking. I believe that experimenting and failing are vital to a creative classroom. But Josh has a point. What if the system works against creative thinking? What if administrators punish innovation? What if the culture consistently mocks it? What if “failing forward” is simply seen as failing? What if design thinking doesn’t translate well on a standardized test?

These are valid questions that you can’t simply write off by saying, “Ignore the tests” or “be bold and change the system.” Pithy platitudes won’t negate a toxic culture or a set of draconian policies. The truth is, innovation doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Which is a good thing, because vacuums suck.

However, there are strategies teachers can use when they want to push creativity and innovation in a system that actively works against it:

• Move into an untested subject area. Sometimes people see this as a copout but in some spaces math and language arts are so scripted, rigid, and test-focused that a teacher is better off choosing a subject that doesn’t feel quite so high-pressure. This was my approach. After teaching self-contained (all subjects) and feeling shamed by the one quarter when my data dipped and feeling constrained by weekly common assessments, I put in a transfer to an elective class where I finally felt I could use design thinking and PBL without anyone caring.
• Find the right leaders. If the issue is school culture and leadership, do whatever you can to get into a school where your administrators will respect your creative approach. I was lucky to have several supportive administrators who validated my pedagogical approach. I realize that this can be tricky in some places. However, there is often an instructional leader (a coach, an assistant principal, or a district office leader) that shares your vision for a creative classroom.
• Share the theory. If the issue is school culture and leadership, spend some time finding the research to back up what you want to do. When I first tried out design thinking, I knew I would need to give a rationale for this approach. I was able to say, “this is why I am doing this and this is the data that backs it up.” It can help to point administrators to sites like the Stanford d.school, IDEO or the Buck Institute for Education.
• Form alliances. Find like-minded teachers who are willing to take the same types of creative risks you are about to take. If they don’t exist in your building, reach out to the larger PLN and build a support network. People are quick to mock “echo chambers” but sometimes a group of like-minded educators can allow you to feel a little less lonely and isolated when pursuing project-based and design-centered learning.
• Share your story. It’s harder to shut down a great thing when you have shared it with your students’ families.
• Think inside the box. Treat the rules and systems as the creative constraint that will lead to innovation. These parameters become the building blocks to do something different. Sometimes this means hacking the system. Sometimes it means adopting some of the ideas and language of the system in order to change it from within. Sometimes it looks more like quiet subversion. Regardless, these limitations can actually lead to creative opportunities.

Innovation is risky. You will run into systems that work against creativity, design thinking, and project-based learning. You will face fear — or, more often, a sense of confusion from those who think what you are doing is weird. At some point in your career, you might have issues with leadership or with the school culture. In these moments, it ultimately comes down to courage.