Wicked problems are extraordinarily difficult to troubleshoot because the facts and parameters surrounding our understanding of the problem change and are often incomplete. Because of this, there is never a definitive solution that leaves the problem solved. (Rittel and Weber, 1973). Consider a problem that I am currently approaching in both my professional life and as part of a graduate class that I'm taking at Michigan State University.
How do we ensure educators are receiving the professional development needed to deliver high quality education?
As a provider of PD in my region, the PD that I plan and offer will help ensure educators have the tools and strategies to deliver high quality education giving this question added importance. Berger (2014) writes about the power of questioning the question. He notes that one way to find out if assumptions and biases are clouding our understanding of a problem is to question the question. I did just that and quickly encountered the wickedness of the original problem. The one question that plagues me and my colleagues this time of year every year.
What PD is needed?
Four simple words surrounded by ever changing answers. Answers that depend on who you ask. Are we focused on an individual or the whole building? Did they have a student disrupting education that they felt ill equipped to support? Are there new state mandates, societal issues, district wide curriculum changes, or even pandemics? I built a survey trying to navigate the wickedness. After sketching a visual of what I would like to see, I realized I need to address a wider audience. The schools I work at have a survey overload issue and to be approved I have to be able to articulate the purpose of the survey as well as have a communication plan in place to report the results or how the data was used. Because of this I plan to utilize social media to collect results. I crafted questions trying to be unbiased and to the point including multiple questions types with a filter question to determine who gets what questions based on role. Soon I will send my survey to stakeholders in my region. All of this to address four simple words.
What PD is needed?
References:
Berger, W. (2014). A more beautiful question: the power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas. New York, NY: Bloomsbury.
Rittel, H. & Weber, M. (1973). Dilemmas in a general theory of planning. Policy Sciences, 4(2), 155-169.
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