Just published — Learning to become with the world: Education for future survival
UNESCO's Education Research and Foresight (ERF) Working Papers propose critical policy analysis and think pieces on global education. The papers provide conceptual clarifications and insights into education, learning and knowledge in an increasingly complex world characterized by a blurring of boundaries between global and local and between public and private. The series is designed for education policy analysts, researchers, advocates and practitioners.
This month, UNESCO publishes Learning to become with the world: Education for future survival, written by the Common Worlds Research Collective, an interdisciplinary network of researchers concerned with our relations with the more-than-human world. On behalf of the Collective, this discussion of the future of education has been cofabulated by: Affrica Taylor, University of Canberra, Australia; Iveta Silova, Arizona State University, USA; Veronica Pacini-Ketchabaw, Western University, Canada; and Mindy Blaise, Edith Cowan University, Australia.
Working Paper Abstract:
In the face of the multiple existential threats we have brought upon ourselves, this paper calls for education to be reimagined and reconfigured around the future survival of the planet. To this end, it offers seven visionary declarations of what education could look like in 2050 and beyond. These declarations proceed from three premises. Firstly, human and planetary sustainability is one and the same thing. Secondly, any attempts to achieve sustainable futures that continue to separate humans off from the rest of the world are delusional and futile. And thirdly, education needs to play a pivotal role in radically reconfiguring our place and agency within this interdependent world. This requires a complete paradigm shift: from learning about the world in order to act upon it, to learning to become with the world around us. Our future survival depends on our capacity to make this shift.
Learning to become with the world: Education for future survival is available on UNESDOC, UNESCO's Digital Library.