Empowering educators by developing professional practice in digital fabrication and design thinking

The world is becoming increasingly automated, and the ability to deal with technologies is seen as important in society and working life. Digital fabrication (DF) and design thinking (DT) have been suggested as approaches to developing students’ understanding of technology and their agency in a digitised world. However, nowadays teachers are not being trained in this field. In order to prepare the next generation for a rapidly changing and unknown future heavily influenced by computing it thus seems necessary to focus on the professional development (PD) of teachers. This study investigates how development of professional practice can be conducted to empower teachers and principals to implement DF and DT activities in schools. Initially, the paper gives an overview of nine educational initiatives in the field, followed by a closer examination of the Danish FabLab@SCHOOLdk organisation. The paper identifies the different PD programmes aimed at empowering in-service teachers, pedagogues, and principals in the field of DF and DT. As the main contribution to the research community, the study identifies five important stakeholders that are supporting and operating in synergy inside the FabLab@SCHOOLdk initiative as well as the surrounding gatekeepers with influence on the development processes. The paper further illustrates how the stakeholders operate in the organisation to enable educators to apply DF and DT in schools and discusses the development of professional practice in this field. Finally, a 1:1:1 -model for realising research-based suggestions in PD programmes is presented.