Exploring educational futures

pp. 243-271

in: Inna Semetsky, The edusemiotics of images, Rotterdam, SensePublishers, 2013

Abstract

The comprehensive educational policy agenda of the 21^st century (Simons, Olssen, & Peters, 2009) calls for "critical attitude or ethos [as] a way of relating to the present" (p. vii, italics in original) while also glimpsing the future in terms of constructing "edutopias' (Peters & Freeman-Moir, 2006). Edutopias belong to the emerging field of Educational Futures that focuses on creating new coordinates for theory and practice and explores the questions of globalization and the knowledge economy, employing such methods of futures studies as scenario planning, strategic foresight, imaginative narratives and new utopian thinking (cf. Milojevic, 2005, 2006; Inayatullah, Milojevic, & Bussey, 2005; Slaughter, 2004; Gidley, 2009; Gidley & Inayatullah, 2002).