Educating for the Future: what and how to teach futures studies in secondary schools

Abstract

<p>The 21st century world is becoming increasingly complex and uncertain. As the pace of social, technological and political changes is constantly accelerating, it is increasingly important for today's young people to be able to learn from the future and gain individual navigation skills that are needed to keep up with the pace of the surrounding world. In this paper we introduce school-fit framework for futures literacy and introduce how futures education could be used in secondary schools to enhance individual futures literacy. Individual futures literacy, in our presentation, refers to a person’s capacity to encounter uncertain futures and consists of processes of cognitive, emotional and active level.<br />Empirically, we are focusing our examination on Finland, as the country has a long tradition of being a global forerunner in the fields of futures research and education. Cross-disciplinary approach has been integrated in the national preliminary and secondary curricula for years and in the recent curriculum reform it has been complemented with the approach of phenomenon-based education. This approach aims at removing disciplinary borders and bringing real-life phenomena into schools as study objects. In the paper we provide some ideas of how futures education and phenomenon-based education can be combined for the purpose of enhancing young people’s individual futures capacity.<br />The background of our presentation is based on previous research in the fields of futures research and futures education, and recent experience of a Finnish initiative that is taking futures education to upper secondary schools. The initiative is done together with UNESCO as Markku Wilenius is holding the UNESCO Chair in Learning Society and Futures of Education.<br /></p>