“Mullin’ the Yarndi” and Other Wicked Problems at a Multiracial Early Childhood Education Site in Regional Australia

Abstract

In this article, Grint’s model of leadership is used to shape discussions of how “problems” are responded to in the context of a preschool in an Australian regional town. Authority styles are described as command, management, or leadership. These authority styles result in approaching problems as “crises,” “tame problems” or “wicked problems” and approaching racial difference in terms of computed“essentialism,” “evasion,” or “cognizance.” This article engages with the approach to “wicked problems” by arguing that framing complex issues, such as race differences, as “wicked problems” allows for multiple ways of thinking through issues which are not possible if they are framed as “crises” or “tame problems.” In this article, we examine a number of examples from the preschool of how “wicked problems” occur in daily practice.