Purpose This study investigates how design-led processes can cultivate teachers' spatial literacy and agency, enabling more pedagogically attuned school environments. It addresses the limited integration of teachers' lived spatial experience and professional identity in architectural design processes for education. The study is guided by the following research questions: (1) How can a design-led medium be conceived and developed to help teachers understand and articulate the relationship between pedagogy and physical space? (2) How can the application of this design-led medium engage teachers in developing spatial literacy and cultivating agency over their learning environments? Design/methodology/approach Employing a design-based research framework, this study introduces The Teacher's Rider, a three-phase participatory workshop that begins with teachers' pedagogical identity, guides them through a speculative, utopian learning landscape and concludes with visualizing spatial “must-haves” aligned with their educational values. The method uses intuitive, visual tools – such as a poster and guided reflection – to translate teachers' tacit pedagogical insights into spatial design language. Findings The results show that teachers can meaningfully articulate spatial affordances and constraints when supported through design-led reflection. The method helps surface spatial intuitions, stimulate reflective awareness and foster a shared design vocabulary between teachers and architects. Practical implications The method offers architects a replicable framework for eliciting tacit user needs and pedagogically grounded insights, strengthening participatory design processes and creating more contextually responsive and inclusive school environments. Originality/value By bridging the cultural and cognitive gap between education and architecture, The Teacher's Rider repositions teachers as interpretive agents in and co-authors of school design.
Stevens et al. (Mon,) studied this question.