Alternative Educational Futures

“We desperately need the dynamic revolution in education that this book offers us, reflecting the new ways of thinking and being on this planet that will permit us to live in peace as a global family even through massive climate changes. Read it and put these ideas into practice as quickly as possible in any ways you can!” —Elisabet Sahtouris, Evolutionary biologist and futurist, author of EarthDance: Living Systems in Evolution

"Provides an overview and analysis of current tensions, debates, and key issues within OECD nations, particularly Australia, USA, Canada and the UK, with regard to where education is and should be going. ... Five specific discourses are explored: globalization; new information and communications technologies; feminist; indigenous ; spiritual.

In the twenty-first century, educators around the world are being told that they need to transform education systems to adapt young people for the challenges of a global digital knowledge economy. Too rarely, however, do we ask whether this future vision is robust, achievable or even desirable, whether alternative futures might be in development, and what other possible futures might demand of education. Drawing on ten years of research into educational innovation and socio-technical change, working with educators, researchers, digital industries, students and policy-makers, this book questions taken-for-granted assumptions about the future of education. Arguing that we have been working with too narrow a vision of the future, Keri Facer makes a case for recognizing the challenges that the next two decades may bring, including: the emergence of new relationships between humans and technology the opportunities and challenges of aging populations the development of new forms of knowledge and democracy the challenges of climate warming and environmental disruption the potential for radical economic and social inequalities. This book describes the potential for these developments to impact critical aspects of education – including adult-child relationships, social justice, curriculum design, community relationships and learning ecologies. Packed with examples from around the world and utilising vital research undertaken by the author while Research Director at the UK’s Futurelab, the book helps to bring into focus the risks and opportunities for schools, students and societies over the coming two decades. It makes a powerful case for rethinking the relationship between education and social and technological change, and presents a set of key strategies for creating schools better able to meet the emerging needs of their students and communities. An important contribution to the debates surrounding educational futures, this book is compelling reading for all of those, including educators, researchers, policy-makers and students, who are asking the question 'how can education help us to build desirable futures for everyone in the context of social and technological change?'

Twelve author-contributed papers from a 1984 conference examine the future of special education. The following titles and authors are represented: "The Institute for Research on Exceptional Children at the University of Illinois" (S. Kirk and W. Spalding); "The Family with a Child Who Is Handicapped: Research Focus for the 1980's" (J. Gallagher); "Families with Mentally Retarded Members: An Agenda for Research 1985-2000" (B. Farber); "Future Directions in Early Childhood Education for Exceptional Children" (M. Karnes); "The Future of Early Childhood Special Education: A Perspective on Prevention" (K. Scott and D. Carran); "Technology and Special Education Futures: Paradigm Shift" (S. Ashcroft); "Technology: A Look Into the Future for Special Education" (L. Stolurow); "The Center for Studies in Education and Human Development: A Programmatic Approach to Research in the Area of Deafness" (D. Moores); "Leadership Training Models for the Future" (C. Howe); "A Proposed American Academy of Scholars in Education of the Handicapped" (L. Dunn); "The Future of Legislative Advocacy for Exceptional Children" (E. Boggs); "Public Policy and Special Education: An Unfinished Agenda" (E. Martin). (CL)

This book provides a systematic and detailed analysis of class relations in advanced capitalist societies as a basis for understanding both class differences in educational practices and the relative effects of class and other social background factors on public attitudes toward education. Secondly, the book offers an empirically-grounded summary of the contending educational ideologies in advanced capitalism, through a discourse analysis of the public statements of spokes-persons for major class groupings. Thirdly, using the data from several public opinion surveys in Ontario, profiles of public attitudes on critical education issues are interpreted in terms of the actual effects of class and other social background factors, as well as the mediating influences of contending ideologies. Finally a general approach and array of tactics for creating practical alternative educational and social futures are illustrated through the book.