ABSTRACT
Program administrators are problem-solvers. Sometimes the problems are con - ceptual, such as deciding on the theoretical dispositions that infuse a program. Generating learning goals compatible with those dispositions requires adminis - trators to initiate curricular reviews and innovations as well as to design and carry out assessment to reinforce potentially successive gains. And if assess - ment is to support instructors’ creative, hard work, then administrators need to turn assessment results into instructor enrichment initiatives, such as peda - gogical workshops, seminars, and discussions. Many program administrators are also charged with the more mundane tasks of keeping a program running: managing budgets, evaluating instructor performance, and keeping track of material resources. The role of the problem-solving program director extends to both creative and mundane tasks and is among the professional activities characterized by Schön (1982) and Mirel (2004) as unprecedentedly complex: “Professionals are called upon to perform tasks for which they have not been educated” (Schön, 1982, p. 15), tasks imbued with “uncertainty, disorder, and indeterminacy” (Schön, 1982, p. 16), highly contextualized, and “tied to the interests of diverse stake - holders” (Mirel, 2004, p. 22). Moreover, “many possible and equally legitimate moves and strategies” can be taken to accomplish a workable solution (Mirel, 2004, p. 16). Because few cut-and-dried responses exist, professionals need to develop multiple strategies for “functioning in situations of indeterminacy and value conflict” (Schön, 1982, p. 17) and devise their own ways to combine strategies in response to complex situations.
