Wicked Problem Survey

We are still chugging forwards with our wicked problem-sustaining innovation through leadership change. This problem is wicked first and foremost because there is not one clear cut solution, but a multitude of things that could contribute to a solution. There is also many players in the game, with teachers, administrators, support staff and students all being affected and playing a role. Leadership change typically affects all of those members of a school community and can halt innovation and change. We are looking for ways to prevent this from happening. Through our research, we have found that leadership has a very distinct, pyramid-like shape with one person in charge of a group of people. We’ve also found that leadership opportunities for teachers are not as common as expected, and leadership opportunities being given to students are even fewer.

We also questioned how to support teachers in taking leadership roles. Teachers are not trained to be leaders, but instead are put on committees or in roles that they feel unprepared or unqualified for. We wondered, how can we train teachers so they are comfortable taking on leadership roles within their school community? How can more trained leaders change school culture, especially during a leadership change.

We created a survey to get more data and information from professionals in the same field. We question how other view leadership, how strongly they feel their voices are being heard, what choices these people would like their voices heard more on and how satisfied they feel with their current leadership. This will give us more accurate information on the topic so that we can begin finding solutions that will solve the issue of how to sustain innovation through leadership change. The survey can be found here. If you fit in the educational profession and feel that you would like to contribute to our data, please take our survey!