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ALXXXX10.1177/1045159519872457Adult learningAdult learning

Vol. 30 No. 4 ADULT LEARNING

Reflection

Adult Education in an Era of “Wicked Problems”

Thomas J. Sork, PhD1

I
’ve been experiencing a growing sense of anxiety world—notwithstanding the defeat of the Equal Rights
about the troubled state of the world, the role our Amendment in 1972; and the Watergate scandal—and
apparent failures as adult educators have played in the growing distrust of political leaders—was still over
getting us here, and the lack of coordinated, broad- the horizon—botched burglary in 1972 and Nixon’s
based, multidimensional strategies to address a growing resignation in 1974. However, I had learned enough
list of “wicked problems.” I’ve been asking myself about history to understand that what I understood as
“How are adult educators addressing these complex “progress” is neither unidirectional nor linear and what
problems? What should we be doing that we aren’t I considered “progress” had its origins in the social-
during this perilous time in human history? economic-cultural context in which I was immersed
I entered the field—and a master’s program—as a and the unearned privilege that accrued to me simply
novice practitioner in 1970 fresh out of an because of where, when, and to whom I was born. An
undergraduate program, awareness of the benefits accruing

“
convinced by my reading and to me because of my gender,
various mentors that we were on
I’ve been asking height, first language, sexual
the verge of a glorious learning myself “How are orientation, and skin tone grew as
society. There seemed to be an adult educators well. My career landed me in
end in sight to the Vietnam War Canada in 1981, so I have also
that had sparked demonstrations,
addressing these had the benefit of living, working,
teach-ins, and violence on my complex problems? and engaging the world through a
campus—although it dragged on What should we be different social-political-cultural
until 1975; there appeared to be a lens. The difference between
great social awakening underway doing that we aren’t viewing the world from a location
about the importance of our during this perilous in a large global economic and
fragile environment—the first time in human military superpower versus a
Earth Day was in 1970; the much smaller, easy-to-ignore,
successes of the space program history?” peace-keeping middle power is
had engendered a renewed sense striking.
of optimism—the manned moon I offer this brief biographical
landing in 1969; the Civil Rights Act of 1964 promised a sketch, in part, so readers can assess the basis of my
more just society—but it took the Civil Rights current anxiety and of the reflections that follow on
Movement to really get things rolling; the Women’s the role of adult education. I argue here that there is
Movement was gaining traction in the Western an unprecedented need to shift our perspective as

DOI:10.1177/1045159519872457. From 1The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. Address correspondence to: Thomas J.
https://doi.org/

Sork, PhD, Department of Educational Studies, The University of British Columbia, 3033 - 6224 University Boulevard, Vancouver, British
Columbia, Canada V6T 1Z2; email: [email protected].
Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions
Copyright © 2019 The Author(s)
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adult educators from what has fundamentally been an 10. The planner has no right to be wrong. The aim is
overly reactive, locally focused, felt-needs-based not to find the truth but to improve some
posture to a more assertive, insistent, globally characteristics of the world where people live
oriented approach to our work. I fully recognize that (pp. 161-167).
many adult educators around the world already
approach their work from this more assertive, The maladies currently plaguing the planet are not
globally oriented stance—most notably popular, new but they seem to be converging in alarming ways
environmental, and activist educators—but I believe and reaching—or exceeding—”tipping points,” wherein
that many more of us need to make this transition if addressing them becomes even more difficult. Levin,
there is to be a habitable, relatively peaceful planet in Cashore, Bernstein, and Auld (2012)—in the context of
the future. climate change—go further by proposing the concept
A concept I’ve found helpful as I have pondered my of “super-wicked problem” that has four additional
own complicity in the current state of affairs is “wicked features to those proposed by Rittel and Webber:
problems,” coined by Rittel and Webber (1973) in the
context of planning theory and social policy. These •• Time is running out.
problems are not wicked in the “ethically deplorable” •• Those who cause the problem also seek to provide
sense but rather because they can be thought of as a solution.
malignant, vicious, tricky, or aggressive (p. 160). Rittel •• The central authority needed to address it is weak or
and Webber present 10 features of wicked problems nonexistent.
that help us understand their character as well as the •• Partly, as a result, policy responses discount the
orientation—and some of the capabilities—required to future irrationally (p. 124).
address them:
The very features that characterize wicked and
1. There is no definitive formulation of a wicked super-wicked problems make them difficult to even
problem—the formulation of a wicked problem is discuss. If the framing/definition of a problem is in
the problem. dispute and if possible solutions are dependent on the
2. Wicked problems have no “stopping rule,” framing, then how can we explore the role of adult
meaning there are no criteria that indicate when the learning and education in addressing the problem?
or a solution has been found. Whether or not they strictly meet the criteria to be
3. Solutions to wicked problems are not true-or-false, considered wicked, there are certainly major problems
but good-or-bad. confronting humanity that deserve greater attention
4. There is no immediate and no ultimate test of a from educators. Examples include the following:
solution to a wicked problem.
5. Every solution to a wicked problem is a “one-shot •• Erosion of human rights.
operation”; as there is no opportunity to learn by •• Persistent poverty.
trial-and-error, every attempt counts significantly. •• Growing inequality.
6. Wicked problems do not have an enumerable (or •• Forced migration and displacement.
exhaustively describable) set of potential solutions, •• Worsening climate crisis.
nor is there a well-described set of permissible •• Assaults on democratic institutions.
operations that may be incorporated into the plan. •• Distrust of science, media, and the press.
7. Every wicked problem is essentially unique. •• Social and economic dislocation due to disruptive
8. Every wicked problem can be considered to be a technologies.
symptom of another problem. •• Alarming water scarcity and food insecurity.
9. The existence of a discrepancy representing a •• Dysfunctional economic structures.
wicked problem can be explained in numerous
ways. The choice of explanation determines the The United Nations’ (UN) Transforming our World:
nature of the problem’s resolution. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2015),

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and the 17 goals it proposes, is one effort to shine a 2. Probe the problem for possible points of
light on many of these issues. The sustainable intervention where educational activities have a
development goals (SDGs) suggest that much work is good chance of making a positive difference.
needed globally to address pressing issues such as 3. Find and connect with allies/activists with shared
poverty, hunger, inequality, and climate change. But the commitments and jointly develop a plan.
specific roles that adult education should play in 4. Consider including formal educational and media
addressing them is not always clear nor are adult events, demonstrations, community-based research
educators always at the table to offer their perspectives projects, meetings with political leaders, and so on,
and talents. as elements of a multidimensional plan.
If the SDGs are not compelling enough to animate 5. Consider employing “stealthy strategies” to increase
adult educators, then consider other evidence that we
awareness of wicked problems, their origins, and
are in the midst of a firestorm of wicked problems. The
consequences—while hopefully minimizing
recent report of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (2018), the UN Environment resistance. Creative thinking will be needed to
Programme’s (2019) Global Environment Outlook, the identify the areas of our work where planet-oriented
Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem moral commitments justify new and unexpected
Services (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on forms of educational interventions.
Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, 2019), the UN
Refugee Agency’s Global Trends: Forced Displacement New versions of Freire’s (1970) critical consciousness
in 2017 (UN High Commissioner for Refugees, 2018), or Mezirow’s (1991) perspective transformation may be
the World Inequality Lab’s (2018) World Inequality necessary to provoke the commitments to act required
Report, and the UN Human Rights Council’s (2019) to reverse many of the trends that currently threaten
Climate Change and Poverty are examples. humanity. Are we up to the challenge of sharing the
I don’t want to leave the impression that adult burden to save the planet?
educators have been oblivious to these problems or Conflict of Interest
their implications for our day-to-day practice. Many
are deeply engaged in addressing some of these, and The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest
our conferences and publications are increasingly with respect to the authorship and/or publication of
taking them up. For example, the book Adult this article.
Education and the Planetary Condition (Harju & Funding
Heikkinen, 2016) was published following the 2015
Nordic conference on adult education and learning. The author(s) received no financial support for the
More recently, Walters (2018) discussed the drought research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
and water crisis in Africa and its implications for adult ORCID iD
education.
Thomas J. Sork https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2941-0110
If wicked problems are difficult to even discuss and
if they cannot be “solved” in the conventional sense, References
what can we do as adult educators to contribute our
Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY:
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them? Here are a few thoughts about how we might
Harju, A., & Heikkinen, A. (Eds.). (2016). Adult education
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1. Pick one global problem of interest and learn as publication/305770068_Adult_Education_and_the_Planetary_
much as possible about its origins, history, current Condition
status, immediate and longer-term impacts, debates Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and
surrounding it, and any theories about why it Ecosystem Services. (2019). Global assessment report on
persists. biodiversity and ecosystem services. Retrieved from https://

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www.ipbes.net/global-assessment-report-biodiversity- United Nations Human Rights Council. (2019). Climate change

ecosystem-services and poverty: Report of the special rapporteur on extreme
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Rittel, H., & Webber, M. M. (1973). Dilemmas in a general Walters, S. (2018). The drought is my teacher: Adult learning
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Thomas J. Sork, PhD, is a Professor of Adult Learning
Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
doi:10.1017/978110862746 and Education at the University of British Columbia.
His research and writing focus on program
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. (2018).
Global trends: Forced displacement in 2017. Geneva, planning, professional ethics, and international
Switzerland: Author. Retrieved from https://www.unhcr. collaboration. He received his PhD from the Florida
org/5b27be547.pdf State University.

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