When a problem does not have a clear solution, what should you do? For our CEP 812 course, we were asked to try to solve a “wicked problem”. These are problems that do not have a clear solution and/or may have a moving finish line, with the goal changing as portions of it are solved (Stony Brook University, 2023). 

The problem that I set  out to solve was “ What biases do I, or the material I teach in ELA (English Language Arts), have?”.  Focusing on bias was something that came naturally to me, as I am constantly trying to improve myself and my teaching practice. To help figure out what biases existed in the ELA material and ELA teachers in my school, I created a short survey for my colleagues to fill out. The goal of this survey was to highlight some of the potential bias that might exist in my schools ELA curriculum and teachers. Overall, the results of this survey were unsurprising, but still a bit concerning to me. While I do a more thorough analysis of the survey and its results in this video I will summarize. 

First, almost half of the teachers did not have formal bias training, meaning that they had not been taught to identify bias, be it conscious or unconscious. Next, all the teachers recognize that they and the curriculum had bias. Finally, despite the fact that they knew they had bias, the vast majority of respondents did not believe this bias affected their teaching. 

I highlight that if my school were to do more bias training and form committees to review curriculum for bias, our teachers and students could potentially excel in ways that we currently do not. 

Overall, this building of a survey and analyzing it really was an enjoyable experience. I never viewed myself as someone who enjoyed looking at data, but I guess that, when it comes to trying to solve a problem, I found it to be pretty wicked. 

References: 

Coady, A. (Director). (2023). Wicked Bias- CEP 812 WPP [Film; Youtube/Canva]. https://youtu.be/CEMZs-ChD9M (Original work published 2023)

Stony Brook University. (2023). What’s a wicked problem?: Wicked problem. Stony Brook University. https://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/wicked-problem/about/What-is-a-wicked-problem