How can future-oriented thinking support the work of schools and educational institutions?
Although we cannot predict the future, we need to actively look into it. Future-oriented thinking helps us perceive what kind of changes can be expected and how they may affect our own life. It also provides us with better abilities to face forthcoming changes and influence their direction. How can future-oriented thinking also support the work of schools and educational institutions?
Megatrendit
Photo: Hanna Ruusulampi, Opetushallitus

Author: Sanna Rekola, Specialist, Sitra

In the context of education, future-oriented thinking should be approached holistically. Anticipation is useful when we evaluate both the practices of the school and the contents of instruction. Towards what kind of future will the objectives set for early childhood education and care (ECEC), basic education and, for example, vocational education and training (VET) take us? What kind of matters should people learn with regard to the future and how? Do the values, the perceptions of the world and the school culture promote the building of a sustainable future?

Reflection on the megatrends can serve as support for future-oriented thinking in schools. Megatrends enable us to perceive the systemic dimensions of sustainable development and examine what kind of changes a sustainable future requires of us at the level of values, society’s structures and activities.

Megatrends are major long-term developments consisting of various phenomena and entailing widespread change. They seldom include anything entirely new and surprising, but they can help us perceive the overall picture and direction of the changes. Megatrends can also help us pay attention to matters that are significant in terms of sustainable development, relationships between matters and opportunities for exerting influence.

In Finland, the actors that have been working with megatrends include the Finnish future-oriented house Sitra, which anticipates phenomena that will affect the future, develops and examines new solutions, and carries out experiments together with different sectors. Sitra’s report on megatrends (2020) highlights five key future developments. In addition to them, we should also pay attention to the tensions between those megatrends whose direction we can particularly contribute to. 

Sitra’s megatrends 2020 that will be presented next are:

  • Ecological recontruction is a matter of urgency
  • Relational power is strengthening
  • Technology is becominb embedded in everything
  • The economy is seeking direction
  • The population is ageing and becoming increasingly diverse

Next, let's look at how megatrends have been approached in the field of education and training and how better use could be made of megatrend thinking in the future.

 

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Ecological reconstruction, which we should urgently undertake, is at the centre of Sitra's megatrends. Ecological reconstruction means a transition to society in which wellbeing is implemented in an ecologically sustainable manner. From the point of view of ecological reconstruction, the crucial issues are the following:

  • How will we succeed in mitigating climate change, biodiversity loss and overconsumption?
  • Will we be able to reconstruct our society on a sustainable foundation and at the same time strengthen wellbeing within the carrying capacity of the earth?
  • Ecological reconstruction challenges school to reflect on its role in making a change. Does school operate in a sustainable manner? Does it produce the knowledge and skills that will help us build a sustainable future? And values and ideals that will motivate us to participate in ecological reconstruction?
  • Recycling and other sustainable practices are already part of the daily work of schools, but to what extent are values, ideals and the strengthening of societal agency discussed in schools from the point of view of ecological reconstruction?
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The strengthening of relational power describes a transition to a world in which the amount of financial, technological and cultural interaction and the extent of networks determine how much power an actor has. In addition to the traditional institutions, power is increasingly used by other actors as well, and creating confusion as a form of exercising power is becoming more common. The power of networks makes it possible to disseminate information and fake information fast and to mobilise masses behind one's own cause.

Education can be used to support critical media literacy and responsible citizen skills. It is also important to discuss what kind of threats and opportunities the operation of networks may have with regard to active citizenship. Stronger democracy education helps to realise one’s own opportunities to exert influence. Supporting the initiatives of children and young people at school is important but, to support active citizenship, a learning approach should be applied to take advantage of their willingness to also be responsibly involved in matters outside the school.

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Technology is becoming embedded in everything and changes not only our practices but also the culture. We are talking about the fourth industrial revolution, the core of which includes digitalisation, robotisation and immaterialisation, i.e., intangible need satisfaction.  Technologies are linked to the functioning of society and even to ourselves in new ways. The scale of the changes is massive from the point of view of education, the world of work and leisure time alike. The fast development of technologies and participation in developing it challenges us to constantly learn new knowledge and skills. Pupils already practise these in many ways at school.

Alongside the digitalising way of life, we need a debate on the ethics and rules related to technology.

  • How do we operate responsibly online?
  • How do I take care of my rights and privacy?
  • What kind of interests are there behind the developments in technology?
  • Who manages data and on what conditions?
  • How is technological development guided?
  • Does technology help us participate in society or does exerting influence online involve risks?
  • Is technology a threat from the point of view of ecological reconstruction or will it help us build a sustainable future?
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The ageing and diversification of the population are also linked to ecological reconstruction.

  • Will we succeed in building a sustainable future together and in preventing confrontations and the polarisation of society?
  • How can we ensure wellbeing to everyone and prevent the increase in inequality while also taking brisk steps towards a sustainable society?

The underlying values and operating culture of the future society are built in schools. We can learn to encounter one another as people and to understand one another and the increasing diversity. Equality and non-discrimination plans already provide a good participatory tool for this, but how do we monitor their realisation? Experiences of participation at school may prevent inequality from increasing and strengthen cohesion at the level of the entire society. Learners spread the skills of empathy and constructive interaction practised at school also to different communities outside the school.

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Our current economic system is ecologically unsustainable and we must find a new direction for it. In addition to putting a stop to the overconsumption of natural resources, it is important to also take into account the wellbeing of people in Finland and globally when reforming the economy. The ageing of the population and securing the future of the welfare state in a sustainable manner are economy-related issues that we will have to consider: will we be able to reform the economy fast enough and in depth, but still fairly?

Schools and other communities can stop to reflect on the following issues:

  • Do schools educate new generations to the ruins of the old economic system or do they actively support a reform of the economy?
  • Is nature still seen as a resource for the economy or is improving the condition of the environment and people’s wellbeing seen as the objective of the economy?
  • Do we approach alternative economic models, such as the circular economy, as genuine options? And do we discuss opportunities to influence the economy in different roles, such as the role of a consumer, a citizen and an entrepreneur?
  • Is sustainable development considered in the school's procurement and is it made visible in it? Is the economy also discussed at the level of values and ideals?
  • However, the key questions from the point of view of our economic system is the following: in the future, could our wellbeing be based on factors other than a rush, competition and consumption?
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If the megatrends described above serve as a useful tool for gaining an understanding of the important developments of the future and the tensions between them, what kind of issues could help us make a sustainable future reality? The different dimensions of education bring up points of view that should also be linked to future-oriented thinking and the discussion of the megatrends at school.

CAPTION: The different dimensions of education help up to find answers to today's challenges.

Responsible societal agency consists of knowledge and skills and focusing them to making an ethically sustainable future.

  • What kind of knowledge and skills does ecological reconstruction require?
  • What kind of ethical perspectives do technological developments involve?
  • How can I and we collectively participate and exert influence in society to enable the economy to be renewed on a sustainable basis.

The future challenges us to continuous learning and evaluation of the impacts of our own choices. Ecological reconstruction challenges us to make a comprehensive change. It is also important for schools to remember that a sustainable future requires us to make changes not only through practical solutions and technological innovations but also at deeper levels. To make a sustainable future possible, reforms are also required in the structures of society and at the level of values, ideals and beliefs. We must also learn to evaluate them critically and with a view to the future.

 

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