In this chapter, we explore the ways in which education and schooling have been shaped by demands... more In this chapter, we explore the ways in which education and schooling have been shaped by demands of policy and industry. These drivers of education are often characterised by conflict with the values, beliefs and behaviours of teachers and teacher educators. Through an investigation of contexts that allow examination of some of the tensions present in education, we illustrate how powerfully education is now constructed by forces outside of the schooling system itself. However, the chapter ends by drawing attention to the place of teacher educators to act as agents of change precisely through identification of existing drivers, recognising this opportunity for the creation of new drivers which reflect the values of the school system.
Educators who wish to exploit the affordances of mobile technologies for learning need more exten... more Educators who wish to exploit the affordances of mobile technologies for learning need more extensive professional development and support to achieve this. The mobile learning toolkit, underpinned by the iPAC Framework, was launched in 2016 as part of an EU-funded transnational project, Mobilising and Transforming Teacher Educators’ Pedagogies (MTTEP), involving nine partners from universities and schools. It consists of media assets explaining the iPAC Framework, several instruments and tools, video vignettes and an online course that individuals and institutions can freely use and adapt. Data demonstrate that users of the toolkit are more likely to underpin their mobile learning activities with sound theoretical principles, based on the Framework, use a wider range of instruments to design mobile learning activities and employ a greater range of m-learning pedagogical approaches inspired by the toolkit. The initiative is now continuing through several related funded projects in Europe, Asia and Central America, including the development of an app and a new online course in another Erasmus project to ensure the toolkit is scalable and sustainable.
ABSTRACT This article develops four school education scenarios to help educators consider the rol... more ABSTRACT This article develops four school education scenarios to help educators consider the role of digital technologies in future teaching and to provoke discussion of how education might be done differently. The context for these scenarios is a world shaped by the COVID19 pandemic. The development of education scenarios is a useful device for thinking about the future and is often used as a methodology to stimulate discussion about possible variations in education. We use our empirical data from a recent study of Australian schools illustrating exemplary remote-teaching, to generate four alternative scenarios for future school education, with a particular focus on learning agency, and the level of educational technology use. We show how different contexts and different student needs are supported by each of the four scenarios. This set of scenarios challenges the common perception that remote learning is only effective through high end use of online technologies, and suggests there is a role for both student-led and teacher-led approaches, depending on the particular contexts. The article discusses the place of innovation in disadvantaged and technology-restricted contexts. It concludes with an analysis of the ways in which school education might respond to future challenges and opportunities.
This chapter examines science education futures to explore the ways in which a specific disciplin... more This chapter examines science education futures to explore the ways in which a specific discipline area seeks to shape its future(s). It first outlines some underlying challenges in present and past science education and describes the way in which experts have proposed ideal or better ways to go about science education. The work reported here draws on data from Australia but is located in an international context. The chapter describes an extended research and consultation process undertaken to explore alternative science education futures with experts. A series of education futures are described ranging from relatively radical to relatively conservative forms of science education and an attempt to come to consensus on a science education future is elaborated. The chapter concludes with discussion of the implications of the work for teacher education and for education futures research.
This chapter explores a range of technologies, both current and emerging, that are likely to impa... more This chapter explores a range of technologies, both current and emerging, that are likely to impact significantly on schools, and therefore teacher education, in the near and medium terms. These are described as ‘disruptive’ technologies since they challenge the underpinning infrastructure and principles upon which education is currently predicated. The chapter identifies three specific disruptive technologies that include ubiquitous and pervasive computing: Big Data and Learning Analytics, and Augmented, Virtual and Mixed Realities. Each of these technology drivers is examined in depth along with a variety of possible implications for schooling and for teacher education. Taken together the chapter demonstrates the significance and importance of technology as a driver of teacher education futures, arguing the need for teacher educators to reconsider many of their existing mindsets and practices in order to meet the challenges that technology presents but also to grasp some of the op...
One of the challenges of futures research is to ensure that it has some impact. Whilst we value t... more One of the challenges of futures research is to ensure that it has some impact. Whilst we value the knowledge that it produces, a key imperative of futures research is that it seeks to provide insights to change the present, to change actions and policies and practice. In short, if futures research only yields knowledge and fails to influence the systems that are being investigated then it falls short of achieving its overarching goal. Extending our vision to the future ten or more years out is in itself challenging. Working out how to arrive at a particular future requires long-term thinking and problem-solving that anticipates opportunities and threats even before they manifest themselves. Backcasting is a form of problem-solving. It asks how do we get there from here? Yet, it acknowledges that whilst it produces a sequence of changes to be enacted, these are produced as much to test the feasibility of a future as to guide actions to be taken. At best, a backcast plan is a hypothe...
This chapter elaborates the benefits of building, analysing and working with futures that will ne... more This chapter elaborates the benefits of building, analysing and working with futures that will never come to be. The future is always unknowable and uncertain but, if we are to design and plan for what is to come rather than accept and adapt to what arrives, we need to use futures thinking tools effectively in teacher education. We can batten down our hatches and be tossed about upon an angry sea or consider options, plan and set sail for a destination; never arriving but always approaching something better. Futures research informs us about the present and our journey. It identifies critical points of potential change and tests the viability of alternative futures. The value of alternative futures is discussed to highlight key differences between futures that might simply arise from current trajectories as opposed to futures we choose to design. The chapter serves as a conclusion to the book Uncertainty in teacher education futures: Scenarios, politics and STEM. It highlights insights that result from futures research.
This chapter revisits the CERI/OECD school education scenarios published in 2001. Given that the ... more This chapter revisits the CERI/OECD school education scenarios published in 2001. Given that the scenarios were developed to imagine learning systems 15–20 years from the date of their development, it is of interest to consider how they align with current conditions. The chapter considers the question, ‘What do learning systems look like in 2018, the period in which the OECD scenarios were positioned?’ Each of the original scenarios is examined to see if there are any features in their original descriptions that align with current contexts. The implications for teacher education are subsequently discussed. The chapter continues with a consideration of the current drivers prevalent in society. A new set of scenarios on schooling is developed, based on the original OECD scenarios. These scenarios take into account current and future drivers to imagine a new set of scenarios. The intention of these scenarios is to provoke debate about schooling and teacher education.
This chapter draws upon the views and opinions of international postgraduate students studying a ... more This chapter draws upon the views and opinions of international postgraduate students studying a module about educational technology as part of a full-time Masters’ program in the UK. These students are all teachers working in various parts of the Middle East and Africa, and many are senior leaders in their own schools. The narrative of the chapter describes how these postgraduate students used the process of future scenario thinking to explore the phenomena of ‘Big Data’ and data analytics, which they identified as a significant technology driver for their own institutions and contexts. The first part of the chapter sets the context for these scenarios, expanding upon the technology discussion covered in Chap. 4. We outline the processes through which these students explored and created their own scenarios around the topic of Big Data Learning Analytics and provide the actual scenarios they devised, before considering the implications of these scenarios, and the process itself, for...
In this chapter, we explore the ways in which education and schooling have been shaped by demands... more In this chapter, we explore the ways in which education and schooling have been shaped by demands of policy and industry. These drivers of education are often characterised by conflict with the values, beliefs and behaviours of teachers and teacher educators. Through an investigation of contexts that allow examination of some of the tensions present in education, we illustrate how powerfully education is now constructed by forces outside of the schooling system itself. However, the chapter ends by drawing attention to the place of teacher educators to act as agents of change precisely through identification of existing drivers, recognising this opportunity for the creation of new drivers which reflect the values of the school system.
Educators who wish to exploit the affordances of mobile technologies for learning need more exten... more Educators who wish to exploit the affordances of mobile technologies for learning need more extensive professional development and support to achieve this. The mobile learning toolkit, underpinned by the iPAC Framework, was launched in 2016 as part of an EU-funded transnational project, Mobilising and Transforming Teacher Educators’ Pedagogies (MTTEP), involving nine partners from universities and schools. It consists of media assets explaining the iPAC Framework, several instruments and tools, video vignettes and an online course that individuals and institutions can freely use and adapt. Data demonstrate that users of the toolkit are more likely to underpin their mobile learning activities with sound theoretical principles, based on the Framework, use a wider range of instruments to design mobile learning activities and employ a greater range of m-learning pedagogical approaches inspired by the toolkit. The initiative is now continuing through several related funded projects in Europe, Asia and Central America, including the development of an app and a new online course in another Erasmus project to ensure the toolkit is scalable and sustainable.
ABSTRACT This article develops four school education scenarios to help educators consider the rol... more ABSTRACT This article develops four school education scenarios to help educators consider the role of digital technologies in future teaching and to provoke discussion of how education might be done differently. The context for these scenarios is a world shaped by the COVID19 pandemic. The development of education scenarios is a useful device for thinking about the future and is often used as a methodology to stimulate discussion about possible variations in education. We use our empirical data from a recent study of Australian schools illustrating exemplary remote-teaching, to generate four alternative scenarios for future school education, with a particular focus on learning agency, and the level of educational technology use. We show how different contexts and different student needs are supported by each of the four scenarios. This set of scenarios challenges the common perception that remote learning is only effective through high end use of online technologies, and suggests there is a role for both student-led and teacher-led approaches, depending on the particular contexts. The article discusses the place of innovation in disadvantaged and technology-restricted contexts. It concludes with an analysis of the ways in which school education might respond to future challenges and opportunities.
This chapter examines science education futures to explore the ways in which a specific disciplin... more This chapter examines science education futures to explore the ways in which a specific discipline area seeks to shape its future(s). It first outlines some underlying challenges in present and past science education and describes the way in which experts have proposed ideal or better ways to go about science education. The work reported here draws on data from Australia but is located in an international context. The chapter describes an extended research and consultation process undertaken to explore alternative science education futures with experts. A series of education futures are described ranging from relatively radical to relatively conservative forms of science education and an attempt to come to consensus on a science education future is elaborated. The chapter concludes with discussion of the implications of the work for teacher education and for education futures research.
This chapter explores a range of technologies, both current and emerging, that are likely to impa... more This chapter explores a range of technologies, both current and emerging, that are likely to impact significantly on schools, and therefore teacher education, in the near and medium terms. These are described as ‘disruptive’ technologies since they challenge the underpinning infrastructure and principles upon which education is currently predicated. The chapter identifies three specific disruptive technologies that include ubiquitous and pervasive computing: Big Data and Learning Analytics, and Augmented, Virtual and Mixed Realities. Each of these technology drivers is examined in depth along with a variety of possible implications for schooling and for teacher education. Taken together the chapter demonstrates the significance and importance of technology as a driver of teacher education futures, arguing the need for teacher educators to reconsider many of their existing mindsets and practices in order to meet the challenges that technology presents but also to grasp some of the op...
One of the challenges of futures research is to ensure that it has some impact. Whilst we value t... more One of the challenges of futures research is to ensure that it has some impact. Whilst we value the knowledge that it produces, a key imperative of futures research is that it seeks to provide insights to change the present, to change actions and policies and practice. In short, if futures research only yields knowledge and fails to influence the systems that are being investigated then it falls short of achieving its overarching goal. Extending our vision to the future ten or more years out is in itself challenging. Working out how to arrive at a particular future requires long-term thinking and problem-solving that anticipates opportunities and threats even before they manifest themselves. Backcasting is a form of problem-solving. It asks how do we get there from here? Yet, it acknowledges that whilst it produces a sequence of changes to be enacted, these are produced as much to test the feasibility of a future as to guide actions to be taken. At best, a backcast plan is a hypothe...
This chapter elaborates the benefits of building, analysing and working with futures that will ne... more This chapter elaborates the benefits of building, analysing and working with futures that will never come to be. The future is always unknowable and uncertain but, if we are to design and plan for what is to come rather than accept and adapt to what arrives, we need to use futures thinking tools effectively in teacher education. We can batten down our hatches and be tossed about upon an angry sea or consider options, plan and set sail for a destination; never arriving but always approaching something better. Futures research informs us about the present and our journey. It identifies critical points of potential change and tests the viability of alternative futures. The value of alternative futures is discussed to highlight key differences between futures that might simply arise from current trajectories as opposed to futures we choose to design. The chapter serves as a conclusion to the book Uncertainty in teacher education futures: Scenarios, politics and STEM. It highlights insights that result from futures research.
This chapter revisits the CERI/OECD school education scenarios published in 2001. Given that the ... more This chapter revisits the CERI/OECD school education scenarios published in 2001. Given that the scenarios were developed to imagine learning systems 15–20 years from the date of their development, it is of interest to consider how they align with current conditions. The chapter considers the question, ‘What do learning systems look like in 2018, the period in which the OECD scenarios were positioned?’ Each of the original scenarios is examined to see if there are any features in their original descriptions that align with current contexts. The implications for teacher education are subsequently discussed. The chapter continues with a consideration of the current drivers prevalent in society. A new set of scenarios on schooling is developed, based on the original OECD scenarios. These scenarios take into account current and future drivers to imagine a new set of scenarios. The intention of these scenarios is to provoke debate about schooling and teacher education.
This chapter draws upon the views and opinions of international postgraduate students studying a ... more This chapter draws upon the views and opinions of international postgraduate students studying a module about educational technology as part of a full-time Masters’ program in the UK. These students are all teachers working in various parts of the Middle East and Africa, and many are senior leaders in their own schools. The narrative of the chapter describes how these postgraduate students used the process of future scenario thinking to explore the phenomena of ‘Big Data’ and data analytics, which they identified as a significant technology driver for their own institutions and contexts. The first part of the chapter sets the context for these scenarios, expanding upon the technology discussion covered in Chap. 4. We outline the processes through which these students explored and created their own scenarios around the topic of Big Data Learning Analytics and provide the actual scenarios they devised, before considering the implications of these scenarios, and the process itself, for...
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