The Common Problems Project (CP2) is an interdisciplinary, problem-based pedagogy that was launched in 2015 by four partner colleges in the State University of New York (SUNY) system (Cortland, Oneonta, Oswego, and Plattsburgh). Since its inception, 100 faculty have participated in CP2 and integrated the pedagogy into 134 courses to implement 47…

The idea of good governance is central to democratic consolidation; and there can be no good governance without a vibrant democratic order that is participatory. Citizenship education is a tool for enhancing participation of the citizenry in the affairs of governance and all that pertains to the socio-economic and political life of the people as…

Resolving urban challenges or 'wicked problems' is a dilemma for most governments, especially in developing countries, and India is a case in point. Collaborative, dialogue-based approaches have been posited as critical to addressing wicked problems. This would require a reform of Indian cities' governance systems to enable citizens to be embedded…

Organizations are faced with solving increasingly complex problems. Addressing these issues requires effective leadership that can facilitate a collaborative problem solving approach where multiple perspectives are leveraged. In this conceptual paper, we critique the effectiveness of earlier leadership models in tackling complex organizational…

This paper's commentary is guided by Gramsci's distinction between, on one hand, the pessimism of the intellect and, on the other, optimism of the will. Accordingly, we seek initially to convey some of the intractable challenges that tend to be encountered by school leaders in the contemporary education context. In doing so, we argue that these…

Purpose: The main goal of this article is to learning define and justify group problem solving as an approach to citizenship education. It is demonstrated that the choice of theoretical framework of democracy has consequences for the chosen learning goals, educational approach and learning activities. The framework used here is an epistemic theory…

School leadership is broadly acknowledged to be the lynchpin for school success. Yet, amongst the countless demands that school leaders face, making wise leadership choices is increasingly challenging. On what should leaders focus their attention and how should they prioritize their improvement efforts? How can they identify, understand, and make…

How do schools maintain momentum with change and enter new cycles of growth when they are attempting to do things differently? This article draws on a two-year evaluation of the "Positive Behaviour for Learning School-Wide" initiative to identify key factors that enabled schools to engage in a long-term and iterative change process.…

For most of the past decade, this author has studied union-management efforts to improve public education, and has witnessed extraordinary examples of teachers, union leaders, and administrators working together to improve teaching and learning. In this article, seven case studies on collaborative partnerships between teachers' unions and…

Universities in Europe face a variety of reform initiatives, and university reform can be seen as a wicked problem that should be resolved through collaborative efforts. In Finland, there has been considerable resistance to proposed reforms, with university personnel complaining that they have not been heard. Students, on the other hand, seem…

Due to significant technological advances and industry requirements, many universities have introduced programmable logic and hardware description languages into undergraduate engineering curricula. This has led to a number of logistical and didactical challenges, in particular for computer science students. In this paper, the integration of some…

This article reviews the comparative merits of distributed leadership and democratic leadership as understandings of, and preferred alternatives to, the leadership of and in organizations. It is particularly concerned that, while distributed leadership may provide a welcome and worthwhile respite from and alternative to the kind of heroic…

Educators commonly compare their restructuring efforts to rebuilding a 747 while in flight. Working smarter means monitoring the efficiency of faculty work from two standpoints: productivity in reaching desired student outcomes and depletion of important resources, including human energy. This article presents a five-stage model of the progress…

To avoid bad decisions, principals must be willing to invest time, energy, and resources and prepare the problem-solving team for the frustrations involved in tackling tough problems. Simple probing techniques such as "creating (or intensifying) the problem,""the Five Whys""I wish" statements, the nominal Group Technique, and multivoting can aid…

This article focuses on the development of, and new theorising about, a strong democracy education intervention, the Just Community approach. Three questions frame the discussion: (1) Does democracy education change children and adolescents or do students in these programs change their schools, or is there a dynamic interaction over time? (2) How…