Its a perspective problem...

For my CEP 817 course we have been exploring empathy and using the idea of multiple perspectives to try to understand and build empathy. The course is about design, but one of the first is to look at the needs of the users and this requires us to look through an empathy lens.

Our assignment was to look at a story from a friend and then consider other perspectives to the story. The following is a story of a staff meeting and

The multiple perspective in a staff meeting. Created using ChatGPT with the prompt of creating an image of a teachers staff meeting showing the multiple perspectives of my stories in a characture style.

Perspective 1

When I started my new job in September, I was excited to teach middle school science, but on arrival, I learned the school had restructured, and I would be teaching Grade 5, all subjects!  I have felt overwhelmed as I tried to learn new curriculum areas all at once. Last week, at a meeting about another possible restructuring for next year, the admin shared a proposal to remove teaching assistants who currently push into classrooms, and my stomach dropped. I work with a TA for one hour every day. Together, we support seven students with various learning challenges. To make the most of our collaboration, I share lesson resources with her, she adapts them to meet each student’s specific needs, and then supports those students directly during class while helping me keep our classroom running in a way that feels fair and manageable. During the meeting, another Grade 5 teacher said they thought removing TAs would be fine, they did not need theirs and that they fully supported the change. I felt frustrated and, honestly, scared for what that could mean. I am already stretched thin planning multiple new subjects, and I don’t know how I will find the time to differentiate properly, or how these students will continue to get the support they need if this happens. That worry has been sitting with me ever since.

Perspective 2

When I heard the proposal about possibly removing teaching assistants from classrooms next year, I felt comfortable supporting the idea because I believe strongly in my ability to differentiate for students within my own classroom. In my experience, coordinating with another adult can sometimes take extra time, meeting to discuss students, explaining lesson plans, and adjusting materials, and I often feel I can respond more quickly and consistently if I handle differentiation myself. I also don’t see this as removing support for students, but possibly shifting it to a different model where support staff could work with students more directly or based on identified needs. I know our principal values data and targeted interventions, and I can see how a more data-driven approach to support might allow resources to be used more efficiently across the school. For me, this feels less about losing support and more about rethinking how support is delivered, even though I understand that change like this can feel uncertain for some teachers.

Perspective 3

As we look at restructuring for next year, I feel increasing pressure to reduce staffing costs, even though I genuinely see teaching assistants as valuable and important to student support. Right now, the reality is that I may need to cut a small number of TA positions simply to meet budget requirements, and that weighs heavily on me because I know these decisions impact both staff and students. At the same time, I am trying to think ahead. If we make an initial reduction, I hope that we can then restructure how the remaining support staff are used and begin collecting clearer data to show where support has the greatest impact, which could help justify and protect these roles in the future. I am also very aware of the risk of increasing teacher workload and the possibility of losing strong teachers if changes feel overwhelming, and I am trying to balance financial realities with maintaining the level of support our students and staff need.

Reflection

I talked to a friend who just moved abroad for a new job and was feeling frustrated with her last staff meeting. I actually did not really interview her with the intention of sharing this story. It actually came up while just on the phone together for a check-in. When listening to this story, I really felt for her. I have only been out of the classroom since June (7 months), and so this was something that I could really relate to; I suppose you could say I could really empathize with how they were feeling. 

To reframe this story, I thought about how I would have felt if my administration decided to do the same thing. I realized that it would depend on which class they were going to remove the support from. I used to teach two grade 6 science classes, and their needs varied significantly. Thus, if they had removed the support from my class with very few needs i would have been fine. Why? Well, because I didn’t feel like I needed it. Maybe that other teacher was feeling the same way. Maybe they were comfortable with their abilities, maybe it made more work to collaborate, maybe they had different ideas on how best to support students… Once I went down the path of whys, I realized there could actually be many. 

Then I asked myself if I could view this from the administrator's perspective. This was much harder. I never budget constraints might be one reason, but I want to think about others. I really struggled, so I actually asked ChatGPT to help me out. In this conversation, I was actually really surprised by all the options that it gave me. It gave possible thinking and emotional drivers that this person might have. It gave me a lot to think about, especially on how they might be feeling and how terrible it might feel to have to feel the need to cut positions. While the thinking parts were interesting, it was really those emotional drivers that hit home. I have never been in the position to have to let someone go from their job or make that decision, and I realized that was something that I was, in fact, really happy not to have to grapple with. Here was another moment of empathy. How would I feel to have to do that? This is what was really hard about writing from another perspective! The teaching perspectives were much easier as I have experience to draw on. But from the admin perspective, I don’t have as much perspective to draw from. It made it more challenging to think about how they might feel, but once some points were made for me, I could begin to think about how those would make me feel and then writing became easier. It was a good reminder that administration also have ther responsibilities as well. 

I have shared with my friend that I used the story she shared for this assignment. I also thought about how I feel like I don’t do this enough, stepping into other peoples shoes. I wondered if that was because if I were to do that during the conversation i wouldn’t be being empathetic to my friend? Sometime is can feel like that if your friend is bothered by something, then say well what is the other person feeling? How do we balance that aspect of being empathetic? In the design process, I realize this is different because that is really your job, to get all the angles, but is that why we are maybe not as good at being empathetic as it can sometimes feel like the opposite of what someone needs in the moment?

References:

ChatGPT was asked to help me brainstorm why an admin might be making the proposal to cut TA's from classrooms.

OpenAI (2026). ChatGPT version 5.2 [Large language model]. https://chatgpt.com/share/6988f353-f458-8008-8131-6ee74773584b