the interdisciplinary world general education as a basis for career and service herb childress...

The Interdisciplinary

WorldGeneral Education as a Basis for Career and

Service

Herb ChildressBoston Architectural College

Citizenship

The condition of voluntarily taking responsibility for, and action on behalf of, a community to which you belong.

Here’s a problem…

• Average atmospheric temperature rise 5 to 8°F

• Sea levels rising 12” to 30”

• River systems salinated further upstream

• Ocean storms more severe and more expansive

• Interior deserts drier and larger

How are we going to design for a billion climate

refugees?


Every year, the building I work in consumes:

• 7,500,000,000 BTU source energy (3 rail cars of coal)

• 1,100,000 gallons of water

• 3,000 lbs of mail

• 100,000 square feet of cardboard

• 70 computers

• 1,500 pizzas

What are we going to do with all that

waste?

From ONE BUILDING?


That building is obsolete. Replacing it would provide

• 60+% energy savings

• $8M in construction wages

BUT it would consume

• 9,000 CY concrete (maybe Massachusetts, maybe Korea)

• 15 miles of copper wire (mined in Chile)

• 1,400 tons of rebar (from China or Russia)

mining, finishing, shipping, labor, health, human rights…

How should we think about sustainable design when we

don’t understand the inputs?

Problem 1 – Climate RefugeesProblem 2 – Waste ManagementProblem 3 – Inputs to Sustainable Design

These are not merely

complicated problems…

Wicked Problems

Some problems are so complex that you have to be highly intelligent and well informed just to be undecided about them.

▪ Laurence Peter

Wicked ProblemsDEFINITIONAL CHARACTERISTICS:

• Can’t be fully defined, or even described

• Can be stated as symptoms of other problems

• Diagnosis depends on the definition

• Changes while we wait

Wicked ProblemsOPERATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS:

• No fixed body of operations or actions

• Each iteration is unique, limits knowledge carryover

• Can’t be solved by subdivision into parts

• No meaningful way to practice

Wicked ProblemsOUTCOME CHARACTERISTICS:

• No right answers, though some are better

• No immediate or ultimate test of solutions

• No stopping rule

Wicked ProblemsETHICAL CHARACTERISTICS:

• Has to be solved by those who made it

• Harm is done while we wait

• Inaction is a choice among actions

• We have no right to be wrong


American suburbs were built for 1950s conditions:• Cheap fuel and cheap cars• An army of stay-at-home mothers• Huge government investment in

infrastructure• Huge government housing subsidies• Development policies that devoured

farm and wild lands

Those conditions no longer exist.

Can we intensify existing

suburban forms?

How do you “infill” wide roads, acres of parking, and vast (and expedient) single-

story buildings?

Here’s a problem…City Peak

population2010

populationChange

Detroit 1,849,600 713,800 -61.2%

Saginaw 98,300 55,200 -43.8%

Flint 196,000 111,500 -43.1%

Youngstown 168,300 72,400 -57.2%

Toledo 383,800 316,200 -17.6%

Gary 178,300 80,300 -55.0%

These cities have smaller and poorer populations, which means their tax bases are shot… but the same amount of roads to pave and plow, sewers and water mains to maintain, land area to protect with police and fire service.

Can we physically shrink an existing city?

Or evacuate it altogether?


At any given moment, about 3,500,000 Americans are homeless, temporarily or permanently.

In 2011, 7,500,000 American houses and 2,000,000 commercial buildings were vacant or abandoned.

Is squatting a civil right?

Research questions can live within a discipline.

The problems of the world do not.

Three Components to Every Career

Content Knowledge

School is very good at this; it’s the focus of almost every classroom.


Content Knowledge

Logistical Knowledge

School is not so good at

this; it’s rarely part of

learning settings.


Content Knowledge


Strategy & Purpose

We’re not very good at this at all. We assume people know why they want what they want


Content Knowledge


Strategy & Purpose

The Major

Liberal Education

The Internship

Wicked Learning

Purpose

Content

Logistic

• Provisional Definitions• Interdisciplinary• Urgency and Immediacy• Solution Must Be

Invented, not Carried Over

• Work Must Be Collaborative, Not Division of Labor

• Work Must Include Those Affected, Not Just “Experts”

• Requires Ongoing Engagement, not “Solve and Walk Away”

Leadership

The characteristic of naming oneself as implicated and responsible for resolving a problem, even while knowing our own incapacity and unworthiness

Where Do Leaders Come From?

Manipulative self-interest

How can I frame this problem in a way that makes it clear that I should be given power or money to solve it?



Humility and reluctance

Well, nobody else is doing anything, and it’s not going to fix itself… I guess I’d better get started.




Recruitment & appointment

You know who’d be GREAT to help us out with this…




Recruitment & appointment

In all cases, leadership is being prepared to say “yes” when an opportunity arises.

Preparing for Serendipity?

How can we prepare our students to be prepared to say “yes” to a broader array of diverse problems?

Preparing for Serendipity?

If we can help our students understand how to approach wicked problems, they can do anything, in any field!

Wickednes

s!

How NOT to Prepare for Wickedness

Year One: General Ed

Year Two: General Ed

Year Three: Major

Year Four: MajorSummer Internship

How to Prepare for Wickedness

Little problem

We give them some small dilemma, and offer different ways of looking at, thinking about, and acting upon it.

• Low stakes, but still real• Relatively low

complexity• Possibly approached

individually


Biggerproblem

More ways of looking at, thinking about, and acting upon it.

• Higher stakes, social need

• Increased complexity

• Larger teams


GinormousProblem!

The kinds of problems that we exercise our own professional judgment upon

The nature of the intervention demands the tools

Sandlot Baseball as “just-in-time learning”

They may be terrible, but at least they’re playing the game. They may even learn

to love it.

The Rigidity of Disciplines

To a man with a hammer…

Our Fields as we Teach Them

Our Fields as we Experience Them

Wicked Problems Require Fluidity

Don’t go into this fight with only one way of thinking!

Don’t just follow procedure. Do what you have to do!

2.2a. Baccalaureate programs engage students in an integrated course of study of sufficient breadth and depth to prepare them for work, citizenship, and life-long learning. These programs ensure the development of core competencies including, but not limited to, written and oral communication, quantitative reasoning, information literacy, and critical thinking. In addition, baccalaureate programs actively foster creativity, innovation, an appreciation for diversity, ethical and civic responsibility, civic engagement, and the ability to work with others. Baccalaureate programs also ensure breadth for all students in cultural and aesthetic, social and political, and scientific and technical knowledge expected of educated persons. Undergraduate degrees include significant in-depth study in a given area of knowledge (typically described in terms of a program or major).

Research questions can live within a discipline.

The problems of the world do not.

Women marginalized,

minimized, held back

Women marginalized,

minimized, held back

Legal studies

Social Sciences

Business Literature

Theology

Architecture

History

Political Science

Women’s

Studies

The First Wicked Major!

More possibilities

Environmental Justice

More possibilities

Sustainable

Foodways

More possibilities

Industrial

Renewal

More possibilities

Prediction

Studies

More possibilities

Micro-Enterpri

se Studies

In all of these cases and others, the role of General Education is not to stand apart, to offer “breadth” without application.

General Education offers us wickedness — the ability to see problems in their full complexity, and to imagine a greater array of solutions.

the interdisciplinary world general education as a basis for career and service herb childress...

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