Small Rural Schools in a Big Urban World: A Wicked Problem

• In Event: 63.080 - Making Rural Schools Work

Abstract

This paper presents initial findings from interviews with community activists, school board officials and non-aligned commentators on the problem of small school closures in rural Atlantic Canada. We frame the problem of school closures as a classic example of what Rittel and Weber called a "wicked problem," or the kind of complex multifaceted social problematic that is not easily reconciled through ordinary technical-rational administrative procedures. We argue that in order to come to grips with wicked problems that are approached and defined differently by people coming form different world-views, that open and complex processed of contextualized deliberative democracy must be constructed rather than relying on formulas and relatively simple regulations that are applied to all situations.

Authors

• Jennifer Renee Tinkham, University of Saskatchewan

• Michael J. Corbett, University of Tasmania