Teachers are formidable UXers, it’s no wonder they’re starting to notice.
I have a reasonably unique perspective. I have spent time in the UX space and in education, both during and outside of the core of the pandemic. I have also done so whilst being within the same generation (Z) as my own students, who will shortly also need to navigate the less than forgiving world of beginning a career in the roaring twenties. I have seen how both sectors convulse back against the tides of sudden change and how both have fought to survive or thrive in the greatest wave of transition since world war two.
What does teaching have to do with UX?
Many teachers have left the profession to transition into tech. Unusually, however, I began in UX and then became a teacher. This made me aware of many of the parallels, but they only came thicker and faster during my time teaching.
Hopefully, it’s obvious that both UXer’s and teachers plan and design experiences with objectives, that they iterate on using user experience and research. Here are a few more things to consider if you’re hiring a UXer to teach, a teacher to be a UXer, or if you’re thinking of making the switch yourself.
1. Teachers and UXer’s need to be critical data analysts.
As an ECT (a teacher in their first year of being qualified, an NQT in old money), I taught roughly 12 classes of 30 students each. Teachers allocated each student an attitude to learning score, and an attainment score which mapped to a percentage score on an assessment carried out once a term. Each of these scores would impact which classes the students were in, which work would be set for them, expectations of their attainment, and what would be written on their termly report home. Teachers need to analyze this data to examine the impact of their own teaching on pupils with different socio-economic, social, and emotional/mental health issues, learning needs, ages, genders, and disabilities.
This data also needs to be scoured for possible false correlations and possible biases. Is the student underperforming because the data shows that they are entitled to free school meals, and are therefore less likely to have parents who are as equipped with time and historic education to help them in the evenings? Or, did you recently change the seating plan and they have been squinting at the board for three weeks and have not told you because they really like sitting next to their best friend? Are they underperforming or does the data actually show a stark improvement compared to the last term, showing the student is recovering from a difficult period of adjustment or was out of the classroom for a long time due to sickness? You’d better go and check their attendance data to verify.
2. We’re empathizers, problem-solvers, active listeners, and careful communicators.
One thing understated during my training year, was the number of my lunchtimes that would be spent having confidential talks with students as they trustingly relay complex and traumatic events unfolding in their lives. Often they’d then plead with me to keep it to myself, to which I have to sadly explain that I cannot promise that. I spent many evenings pouring over books on emotional neglect, LGBTQ+ and trans youth mental health support recommendations, and how to maintain healthy boundaries with young people for whom you may be the only trusted adult they have. Learning to mentor young people through situations that many of the adults around me couldn’t navigate themselves, whilst remembering never to ask leading questions which could influence their account, and remaining present in the conversation whilst noting exactly what they have said so I can record it formally without getting a word of it wrong, often took precedence over my sandwiches.
Teachers and UXer’s need exceptional active listening skills. This problem-solving, multitasking, communication, and emotional work rarely needs to be replicated in the UX world precisely, but I’m no longer concerned about how I would conduct myself in a sensitive interview study or focus group.
3. Both are psychologists that notice and act on patterns of human behavior in a timely and effective manner.
Teachers are tasked with understanding, identifying, referring, and usually supporting students who demonstrate signs of dyslexia, poor sight, dyscalculia, ADHD, ADD, depression, oppositional defiance disorder, autism, hearing issues, eating disorders, motor control difficulties, audio processing difficulties, social-emotional and mental health issues and more. Once a pattern of signs that may be related to one of these issues is identified, the teacher must then investigate further by speaking to other teachers in other subjects that might teach this student, and experimenting with a long list of possible classroom-based resources and techniques such as behavior management strategies, screen and book coloured overlays or alternative styles of learning delivery in order to validate their concern and have their referral to a special educational support team, or beyond accepted.
Doing so, almost always means a list of new adaptations to the lesson and learning materials is delivered back to the teacher, who must then re-plan their next learning sequence. They must do so quickly, and sensitively so that they can begin to record and monitor the child’s progress through trial and error iteration in the hope of resolving their learning barrier before it becomes completely detrimental to the student's wellbeing or attainment. Accessibility is not a simple tick list in a computer science classroom, mistakes don’t just result in lower sales or sign-ups, the result of ignoring it plays out before you in every resulting lesson that students may sit with you for the next five years, and in their employment prospects for years to come.
4. Tough talks with tougher stakeholders.
UXer’s need to be able to communicate effectively and empathetically with developers, designers, business minds, and customers. They must learn to speak everyone’s technical language, whilst acknowledging everyone’s key priorities. Clients can be stressed nearing deadlines, and designers and developers can be tough crowds for feedback. Rarely, however, will they elicit the same repertory “Okay deep breath in and out” whispered to myself, as calling a tired and worrisome parent to tell them that there is an issue with their child’s behavior. Or perhaps worse, a call to a parent about a concern for their child’s wellbeing who isn’t equipped to understand or take any meaningful action.
Then there are department heads from different generations of teaching, whose priorities or core beliefs don’t align with your own, or your training, conducting routine (but random) data scrutinies or classroom drop-ins. Throw into the mix a dose of ever-changing recommendations and objectives that must be evidenced for Ofsted or the Department of Education, which are delivered by senior leadership team members, who may or may not have the time or inclination to explain how it might apply to your specific subject and role.
Finally of course there’s the class of 30 completely different and complex human beings whose passion for your subject you must impart, alongside total confidence and self-efficacy, while delivering daily critical feedback and embedding “traditional British values”, all the while hoping that fun happens.
It’s the ultimate stakeholder balancing act, and I’m not so worried about the developers, designers, and product owners anymore.
5. If you really care about either UX or teaching, you wind up reading a neuroscience textbook at 1 am.
UXer’s and teachers strive to understand the human psyche and its connection to learning and habit forming. New teachers now qualify having written essays at masters level about Piaget’s theories of knowledge assimilation, ACE score theory and the effects of long-term exposure to stress on the brain and nervous system, mindfulness and its effects on emotional regulation, and dual coding visual information. Our actions and their results must be justified by current or prevailing research which has never been updated and changing so quickly. Only 30 hours of paid professional development time is factored into each teacher's year, most of which is usually spent on refreshing basic health and safety knowledge to meet compliance laws. This means that when a teacher is faced with a new challenge, finding possible solutions fills their evenings and weekends. Like most teachers, my own fascination with the human beings I teach and the human brain in general, drove this. However, when UX professionals are expected and encouraged to learn and feedback to their colleagues during working hours, which pay much more, to begin with- it demonstrates that the same can be done without the need for martyrdom.
The takeaway (or packed lunch)
I’m still learning and growing myself, as we all should, but one piece of advice I have confidence in giving out is this: There’s no reason to choose one job role, because your constantly developing skills will be transferable to places where they will be valued in differing ways at different places, and those places will keep changing. Choose one role at a time. Jobs that last ten or even five years are now a rarity, and telling students otherwise is a breach of our responsibility to prepare them.
As I began to tell my students I was leaving teaching and that I was going back to do something called UX, I would often be asked why. I loved explaining this because it models for my students how we can audit our skill sets and needs and be ambitious and intentional about our career choices.
Teaching is one of the most fulfilling, tiring, interesting, and loving things you can do, and I can’t imagine a profession where you can learn more about yourself or other people as fast. But it’s not the only place to use these skills, and it isn’t the only place they are wanted.
