The evolution of futures in school education

Abstract

School education seems to be mostly stuck in an outdated industrial era worldview, unable to sufficiently address the significance and increasing rapidity of changes to humanity that are upon us. An integrated forward-looking view should, now more than ever, be of central importance in how we educate. Yet there is little sign that -unlike corporations -school systems are recognising the true value of futures studies. A brief history of futures in school education shows the significant role played by the World Futures Studies Federation in its evolution to date. The article also introduces integral analysis as a way of opening up new possibilities to help school education develop due foresight and to more fully realise its potential as a prime facilitator in individual and cultural evolution.

Teaching the future: learning strategies and student challenges

“…This approach to understanding the future, placing an emphasis not on teaching the future but an educational philosophy and epistemology approach that embraces student leaning is what the authors advocate in this paper. Since then, other books have included Kauffman (1976), Slaughter (1993), Dator (2002), Hicks (2002) and Gidley (2005). Most recently Bishop and Hines' (2012) book Teaching About the Future is a noteworthy contribution which follows the formulas of success from the University of Houston, USA and Swinburne University of Technology, Australia.…”

School, images of the futures and social processes in classrooms

“…The centrality of school in modern education systems and the dominance of the scholastic form of socialisation, especially in European and Western culture [1], fully justifies futures researchers' concern for the effect of school on children's capacity to imagine positive and alternative futures and on their empowerment for shaping them. However, as stated by Gidley and Hampson [2], researchers appear not to have significantly addressed ''the nature and dynamics of the relevant societal structure and systems -in this case, the education system itself'', which influence images of the future and the proactive attitudes of youth.…”

Environmental Leadership Education for Tackling Water Environmental Issues in Arid Regions

“…At the local level, this approach has also been used in community development projects such as the one in the San Juan del Gozo community in El Salvador [ 14 ]. In the fi eld of education, the approach has also proved useful for curriculum development: see, for example, Gidleya and Hampson [ 15 ], Lloyd [ 16 ] and Akiyama et al [ 1 ]. Drawing upon these practices, we designed the fi eld exercise following the four quadrant framework presented in Fig.…”