Educating for Wicked Problems—Rethinking Social Work Education Through Care Ethics and Complexity

This article examines how social work education can prepare students for professional practice in situations characterised by wicked problems, where uncertainty, competing interpretations, and changing circumstances challenge linear models of problem solving. The article integrates Joan Tronto’s ethics of care, Annemarie Mol’s logic of care, Donald Schön’s reflective practitioner, and Gert Biesta’s framework of qualification, socialisation, and subjectification. The analysis suggests that care-oriented social work in contexts characterised by wicked problems requires professional capabilities such as interpretation, judgement, responsibility, attunement, reflexivity, humility, solidarity, and responsiveness. These professional capabilities are cultivated through the interaction of qualification, which develops professional knowledge and the interpretive resources on which case knowledge depends; socialisation, which fosters participation in professional and collaborative communities; and subjectification, which supports independent judgement and responsible action under conditions of uncertainty. The article argues that preparing students for wicked problems requires educational experiences that expose them to complexity, ambiguity, competing values, and difficult judgements rather than relying solely on the transmission of knowledge and skills. It further suggests that social work education is itself a wicked problem, requiring ongoing reflection and adaptation. The paper concludes that qualification, socialisation, and subjectification must be integrated across all phases of care, and that educators must model the openness, reflexivity, humility, and engagement with complexity expected of future social workers.