Catalyzing Disorienting Dilemmas in Planning Education

Planning educators are challenged to impart to students a realistic understanding of the complexity practitioners face while maintaining motivation about the transformative possibilities of the profession. In the process, planning students experience “disorienting dilemmas,” which may be productive for professionalization, but the mechanisms that catalyze disorientation are underspecified. Drawing insight from students’ learning experiences in five planning courses with community-engaged learning components, this paper identifies the catalysts of disorienting dilemmas and characterizes how disorientation impacts professionalization. Understanding how and when disorientation arises can support educators to deliver learning experiences that build the knowledge and skills future planning practitioners require.