Futures Education and Learning

The broad notion of educational futures includes three overlapping areas of research: 1) youth futures, which includes research, mostly in school settings, that explores the futures views and visions of young people; 2) futures in education, which includes theoretical and practical research about the actual teaching of futures concepts, tools and processes in school and university settings; and 3) futures of education, which includes theoretical, practical and speculative research into new paradigm educational models and approaches, many of which have futures thinking as part of their underlying worldview. New thinking patterns and ways of knowing have emerged throughout the last century. All major academic disciplines have developed new forms and processes of research and developmental psychologists have identified higher stages of postformal reasoning. However, academic research on “futures of thinking,” “evolution of consciousness” and/or “global mindset
change” has been largely ignored by mainstream academic discourse on evolution, consciousness and futures research (Gidley, 2010, 2011). And consequently, mainstream education has remained trapped in a 19th century industrial mindset. Futures-thinking is a feature of higher reasoning and should be incorporated into education. Futures researchers need to take a stand with psychologists, philosophers and neuroscientists to promote futures thinking as a new paradigm learning mode.