Teacher Burnout: A Wicked Problem

What is a “Wicked Problem”?

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term “Wicked Problem”, here is how I would summarize the The 10 Properties of Wicked Problems:

1. Attempts to define a wicked problem will add more complexity to the problem making it impossible to define the problem well.

2. Unlike ordinary problems, wicked problems are never fully “solved”.

3. Solutions to wicked problems are not binary right/wrong, or true/false, they land somewhere in a gradient between good and bad. Those choosing are often forced to go with the “best bad idea”.

4. Solutions to wicked problems are inconclusive, and generate unexpected consequences over time.

5. There are no bloopers, mulligans, or do-overs; you choose one Pandora box with the information you have at the time.  Solutions to ordinary problems can easily undergo trial and error. With wicked problems, every implemented solution has consequences that cannot be undone.

6. The potential solutions to wicked problems are not finitely many, the permissible operations for those solutions are not finitely many. 

7. “A wicked problem is substantially without precedent; experience does not help you address it.”

8. Wicked problems overlap with other problems, and they are by their very nature unwieldy and idiopathic.

9. The stakeholders in a wicked problem cannot reach a consensus on defining the problem or what its causes are.

10. Wicked problem solvers are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.  They are held liable for any consequences of the solutions they present because of the size of the impact of the “best bad idea”.

Discussion and Questions

I worked with a fantastic group of educators to look at the wicked problem of teacher burnout, retention, and shortages.  We had a great question generating session and these are the questions I asked that overlapped with my group a bit.

• How many teachers are leaving?

• What factors are leading to teachers leaving?

• What factors are deterring people from teaching?

• How can we get all teachers the resources they need?

• How does this affect the students?

• Do schools offer adequate mental health services for teachers and students?

• Are teachers given the freedom and means to teach effectively?

• What major stressors, if eliminated, would have the most meaningful impact?

• What can legislators do (or stop doing) to help the teacher shortage?

• How do we untangle the kafkaesque nightmare that is standardized testing and how it relates to teacher evaluation?

• How many good teachers have we lost to bad administrative policies?

• Who has power to change administrative policies?

• Do the right people actually have administrative power?

• In the power-structure that exists, how can we positively affect change?

• What can stakeholders do to retain teachers?

• What does the research tell us?

You can check out the poster we presented with this wicked problem below. While we presented, our classmates brought up some “reasons for leaving” in the Google Jamboard we used to engage our audience with the poster. We took some time to highlight in our discussion the following contributions: Low pay, gun violence, disrespect of profession, impossible work/life balance, and no support for mental health days.

Reflections

To recap, we looked at the wicked problem of Teacher Burnout, Retention, and Shortages. We focused on why people don’t want to become teachers, or why they leave the profession much quicker than anticipated. We wondered how this affected learners in environments where teachers are experiencing exhaustion related to these issues. Finally, we tried to look at what stakeholders could do to maintain or increase teacher retention, and improve conditions to address teacher burnout and shortages.  We can see from a survey of teachers arranged by the National Education Association (NEA) that "This is a five-alarm crisis. We are facing an exodus as more than half of our nation’s teachers and other school staff are now indicating they will be leaving education sooner than planned."

I think that the shortages and retention issues go hand-in-hand in a negative-feedback loop that grows increasingly dangerously close to implosion everyday, at least in the United States. We expect teachers to wear so many different hats that they must buy for themselves after their negligible classroom budgets have been expended (the hats are not real here, but the cost associated with them is). They act as nurses, counselors, body guards, coaches, mentors, tutors, and so much more beyond their chosen roles as educators; and many of them do it for the passion of shaping and nurturing the minds of the next generation.

We should absolutely be ensuring that educators can make ends meet, and I would go so far as to say that we should pay them the thriving wages they deserve.  We should also restore or instate the prestige that ought to come with the noble endeavors educators strive to pursue in their careers. We should respect the power and influence that caring educators have on our children.