How we talk about the future in the classroom matters
At Educreators we recognize the importance of empowering students with the mindsets, skills and competences necessary to interact with a complex, fast-changing world. Our aim is to support teachers and students not only in imagining resilient, preferred futures that reflect their aspirations, but also in triggering inspired present action. Our approach is based on interdisciplinary research (futures literacy, futures thinking, learning sciences, psychology) and participatory design.
We believe that primary and secondary school teachers can support young people to positively influence their lives by “using the future” in order to develop critical thinking, openess to alternatives, or concern for others and the planet. By cultivating mental flexibility, realistic hope, and by experiencing empowering narratives of preferred futures, students start opening up to new ideas and possibilities for themselves, their communities and the world.
In FuturesReady. Classrooms, we focus specifically on developing critical thinking and student agency, defined as “the ability and the will to positively influence their own lives and the world around them”. Through personalized learning activities integrated in the curriculum, primary and secondary school teachers and students in our Community of Practice practice how to:
- identify and analyze future narratives emerging in the public space
- hold space for complexity and tensions arising between the past, the present and alternative futures in their local context and also globally
- experience and design preferred futures linked to their community’s aspirations
- integrate significantly different perspectives
- take present action towards desired outcomes
- train futures thinking skills in practical and dynamic ways
If you would like to join our Community of Practice and set up a pilot project in your classroom, please e-mail team@educreators.net .
