Education Commons^™

In contrast to static, disciplinary problems, many of the issues we face in the world today can be characterized as “wicked,” dynamically complex, interdependent, high stakes issues with no simple or obvious definition (let alone any simple or obvious solution). These wicked problems confront us with high levels of uncertainty in situations where both action and inaction carry serious long-term consequences. Current top-down, siloed, and abstract pedagogical strategies do not provide students with the tools for collaboratively managing such problems.

How can we prepare students within our own fields to tackle large-scale wicked problems?

What pedagogical methods can be used …

This presentation provides a number of strategies for instructors interested in a more participatory, transdisciplinary, and experiential educational model in order to foster real-world change around our high-stakes, complex public problems. By utilizing soft system’s thinking in addition to a feminist pragmatist methodology students can successfully collaborate with community partners and integrate across their disciplinary expertise in order to co-develop and implement action-plans with community stakeholders. Given the value of this work, but also the challenges, this session also highlights the potential pitfalls of working to prepare students for a messy, iterative process of collaboratively learning-by-doing in a “wicked” world.

Join us in the fight against overly processed foods—may the odds be ever in your flavor! In the winter of 2014, a team of students from Lib 322 “Wicked Problems of Sustainability” identified the food system and its impact on children as a wicked problem, initiated a community partnership at Black River Public School, and posited the development of an interdisciplinary, experiential project term course then designed by students in Lib 342 “Food Matters.” This new Black River course, “The Hungry Games,” will be piloted this spring to engage middle school students in experiential learning in order to foster understanding …