Abstract
Sitting on my desk are a pile of books, my own amongst them, concerned with the relationship between education and “the future.” They are a mixed bunch both in their diagnoses of what the future may bring—techno-utopias, environmental crisis, economic breakthroughs or catastrophes—and in terms of their views of how education should respond—disaggregation of the institution into myriad online learning environments, redesigned curricula based on neuroscience, a radical embedding of institutions within the community, a reimagining of schools as sites of revolution and resistance. They are also mixed in their attitudes towards young people and young people’s relationship to the future. Young people are both presented as spearheading new revolutions, providing leadership and insights into the future, as well as innocents needing educational experiences that will fit them for worlds for which they are unprepared.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adam, B., & Groves, C. (2007). Future matters. London: Routledge.
Amsler, S. (2015). The education of radical democracy. London: Routledge.
Anyon, J. (2005). Radical possibilities: Public policy, urban education and a new social movement. New York: Routledge.
Anyon, J. (2009). What is to be done? Toward a rationale for social movement building. In H. Svi Shapiro (Ed.), Education and hope in troubled times: Visions of change for our children’s world (pp. 47–62). London: Routledge.
Apple, M. (2009). Is there a place for education in social transformation? In H. Svi Shapiro (Ed.), Education and hope in troubled times: Visions of change for our children’s world (pp. 29–46). London: Routledge.
Archer, M. (2013). The reflexive imperative in late modernity. Cambridge, UK: CUP.
Baker, D. (2009). The schooled society and beyond: The modernizing role of formal education as an institution. Review for the Beyond Current Horizons Programme. Bristol, UK: Futurelab. http://www.beyondcurrenthorizons.org.uk/evidence/knowledgecreativity-and-communication/
Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the universe halfway: Quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Bloch, E. (1986). The principle of hope (N. Plaice, S. Place, & P. Knight, Trans.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. (Original work published in 1959).
Brown, P., Lauder, H., & Ashton, D. (2010). The global auction: The broken promises of education, jobs and rewards. New York: Oxford University Press.
Bruner, J. (1986). Actual minds, possible worlds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Bussey, M., Inayatullah, S., & Milojevic, I. (Eds.). (2008). Alternative educational futures: Pedagogies for emergent worlds. Rotterdam, Sense Publishers.
Castells, M. (2009). Communication power. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Cummings, C., Todd, L., & Dyson, A. (2007). Towards extended schools? How education and other professionals understand community-oriented schooling. Children and Society, 21, 189–200.
Facer, K. (2011). Learning futures. London: Routledge.
Fielding, M. (2007). The human cost and intellectual poverty of high performance schooling: radical philosophy, John Macmurray and the remaking of person-centred education. Journal of Education Policy, 22, 383–409.
Fielding, M., & Moss, P. (2011). Radical education and the common school: A democratic alternative. London: Routledge.
Galtung, J., & Inayatullah, S. (1997). Macrohistory and macrohistorians: Perspectives on individual, social and civilizational change. London: Praeger.
Gough, N. (1990). Futures in Australian education: Tacit, token and taken-for-granted. Futures, 22, 298–310.
Kompridis, N. (2011). Receptivity, possibility and democratic politics. Ethics & Global Politics, 4, 255–272.
Levitas, R. (1990). The concept of utopia. Witney, UK: Peter Lang.
Levitas, R. (2013). Utopia as method: The imaginary reconstitution of society. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Macmurray, J. (1961). Persons in relation: Vol. II of the form of the personal. London: Faber & Faber.
Massumi, B. (2007). Potential politics and the primacy of pre-emption. Theory & Event, 10(2). http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/theory_and_event/v010/10.2massumi.html
Miller, R. (2011). Being without existing: The futures community at a turning point? A comment on Jay Ogilvy’s “Facing the fold”. Foresight, 13(4), 24–34.
Odum, E. P. (1971). Fundamentals of ecology (3rd ed.). Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders Company.
Poli, R. (2011). Steps towards an explicit ontology of the future. Futures, 16(1), 67–78.
Siebers, J., & Fell, E. (2012). An exploration of the relationships between concepts of “community” and “future” in philosophy. Swindon: AHRC. Retrievable from http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/documents/project-reports-and-reviews/connected-communities/an-exploration-of-the-relation-between-the-concepts-of-community-and-future-in-philosophy/
Slaughter, R. (2004). Futures beyond distopia: Creating social foresight. London: Routledge.
Wright, E. O. (2010). Envisioning real utopias. London: Verso.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Sarah Amsler, Michael Fielding, Riel Miller, Roberto Poli and Johan Siebers for the conversations and the books that have shaped my thinking in this chapter. Without friends, we have nothing.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2016 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Facer, K. (2016). Using the Future in Education: Creating Space for Openness, Hope and Novelty. In: Lees, H., Noddings, N. (eds) The Palgrave International Handbook of Alternative Education. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-41291-1_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-41291-1_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-41290-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-41291-1
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)