No Child(ren) & Shadow(s) Left Behind
The Preferred Future for Non-State Actors, aka “Shadows,” in Education
This thought experiment explores a radical change scenario for a preferred future that builds a more-than-human and collective education system. The focus is on planetary sustainability for future survival; both state and non-state actors are regulated to co-create and co-exist with new and emerging technologies. Education is redefined for all students to become with the postmodern world.
No child will be left behind.
No shadow will be left behind
No Child(ren) Left Behind
On the debate regarding the institutional nature of schools, there are two main concepts of education. It is rooted in the control of knowledge: education as a public good, and education as a private good.
Education as a public good
| UNESCO Education 2030 Framework for Action | Education is a public good, of which the "state is the duty bearer." |
| Historical Premise | The Industrial Revolution is the main driver for a public education system that meets the assembly line principles of conformity, accuracy, and precision. The State requires schools that educate in batches according to age groups. Academic subjects are meticulously organized according to specializations. |
| Control | State/Central government |
| Purpose | Formal public schools are established to develop national identity and public policies, to mobilize the workforce in an industrializing economy, and to increase societal efficiency with active public participation. |
| Debate | If education is truly a public good that cares for its citizens, it cannot discount the personal needs of the students and parents as stakeholders. Participation of corporations in an industrialized capitalistic society are also helpful in educational innovations, investments, and funds. |
Education as a private good
| UNESCO Education 2030 Framework for Action | Education is a fundamental human right and an enabling right. |
| Historical Premise | Modernism has the values of freedom and equality. The rise of a mass intellectual culture gave birth to liberalism: subjective sentiments are the supreme source of authority. Each family has a different idea on how students must be educated. |
| Control | Students |
| Purpose | Schools are essentially established because of an intrinsic motivation: love of learning. Parents also have the right to choose the right kind of education for their children according to their cultural, ethnic, linguistic, or religious background. |
| Debate | If the gates are widely open to private sectors and other alternative institutions, the concept of inclusivity and equality is still threatened. Rich families have the advantage on accessing a better quality of education. |
Nonetheless, the issue is not black and white. Analyzing the roadmap laid by the Education 2030 Framework for Action shows a middle way: between public good and private good lies common good 1.
Education as a common good
The mode of learning must be personalized, but access to learning must be universal.
| UNESCO Education 2030 Framework for Action | Countries must ensure universal equal access to inclusive and equitable quality education. Education is "a shared societal endeavor," which implies an inclusive process of public policy formulation and implementation, where civil society and the private sector, among others, have important roles in realizing the right to quality education with the state having an essential role in setting and regulating standards and norms. |
| Historical Premise | Postmodernism sees a fast-paced world of relativism, multiculturalism, and egalitarianism. It is craving for a holistic and integral approach that can synthesize all perspectives. With the conflicts in globalization and identity politics, there is a call to recontextualize education by putting the concern for "knowledge" at the forefront of discussion. It is grounded in solidarity and love of learning. |
| Control | The collective humanity |
| Purpose | Schools exist to cultivate humanism while also integrating international and local policies. The fundamental purpose of education in the twenty-first century is to "sustain and enhance the dignity, capacity, and welfare of the human person in relation to others, and to nature." Shared responsibility for the common future is emphasized. |
| Debate | There is a paradox on all common goods: if the fields of education are both open to state and non-state institutions, the costs of abuse are also shared. If regulations are not established firmly, the love of learning cannot be both personal and collective. |
Humanistic and integral approach to education
The debate on education as a public or private good is moot. Conditions of the current era demands the reconceptualization of education as a common good. In this scenario, the differences on the acquisition, validation, creation, and control of knowledge are inferior to the value of "learning transfer." Students must ultimately have the goal of applying their knowledge for the sustainability of our shared resource: the planet Earth. Learning must be values-based, integral, and humanistic: predictability, conformity, and control from the industrialized model of education does not work anymore. The future is dynamic, volatile, uncertain, and complex. The role of the State is to legislate and enforce laws and regulations to ensure that the collective goal is achieved regardless of the means.
Holistic thinking must be embodied in ensuring economic well-being. The goal is to integrate the public desire for planetary survival and the private motivation of human dignity in the process of addressing technological change and environmental degradation2.
No child will be truly left behind if the common good is prioritized.
No Shadow(s) Left Behind
Defining shadows
In the latest Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report3, non-state institutions (aka shadows) refer to "actors that does not represent the State – from impoverished parents spending money on education to corporations whose market dominance can shape education systems." It also includes "direct and indirect activities: from private tuition and assessment systems to influence on university research agendas and sales of educational toys."
The shift on the public perception of education from a public good to a private right resulted to the establishment of philanthropic organizations and foundations, corporations, and other multistakeholder partnerships that allowed for the further mobilization of additional resources in education such as tax payments, and other services and activities that provide inclusive education opportunities.
Non-state actors are dubbed as shadows because of the following reasons4:
Basically, shadow institutions move according to the groove of the mainstream education system.
Issues on shadows
According to the aforementioned GEM report, there are three core issues on shadows:
In the process of carrying out alternative means for learning, doubt is always casted on the nature of shadow institutions as money-making businesses. In fact, the prevalence of private tutoring is a financial pressure among parents who aim the best for their offspring. Tough standardized tests and university entrance exams force the students to seek further assistance on their academic endeavors. It is not also impossible for entrepreneurs to improve cost-efficiency by hiring unqualified teachers for their service. In these scenarios, there is a chasm between the alternative and the mainstream: there are varying qualities of education even if there is freedom of choice.
- Equity and Inclusion
"No choice," not "freedom of choice," is pervasive among the disadvantaged families. The capacity to afford private alternative support raises an issue on the principle of equity and inclusion on education. Nonetheless, the existence of shadow institutions that genuinely supported the weaknesses of public systems still cannot be disregarded. There are shadows that perform charity work during crisis and emergency contexts, and even for informal settlements that cannot be reached by the government. Also, some parents prefer schools that appeal to their religious beliefs, convenience, and demographic characteristics (e.g., Catholic parents are more receptive to sending their offspring to Catholic schools). Most importantly, in the current COVID-19 pandemic, non-state actors are proving its important role in initiating innovation to continue education.
- Innovation
The implementation of standardized systems by the State are often criticized to be overly rigid. The involvement of shadows is helpful on revolutionizing pedagogies that would improve the current model of education. It would be hard for the State to simultaneously regulate and innovate. The co-existence of both the alternative and the mainstream is like a system of check-and-balance among the executive, legislative, and judiciary branches of a democratic government. Nonetheless, critics of the shadows still argue that standardization must really be rigid to ensure the same quality of education in all schools regardless of the provider.
Currently, the equitable and inclusive access to education is hampered by lack of digital skills, poor experience with technology, inadequate equipment, and outdated systems. The exponential growth of technologies even gives birth to Boundless Education. The omnipresence and omniscience of the Internet makes it an omnipotent medium: a new god. It is a master of time and space that can teach anytime and anywhere. Improving the system of education cannot just be achieved by governments; in fact, it is the non-state actors who are currently more influential. The continuous disruption contributes to changing consumers' demands: students are now questioning the value of traditional education. Online learning markets are flourishing with the increasing demand on accessing alternative learning modes. It is incontestable that shadow institutions must still be regulated.
If the Change Progression Method5 is applied based on the probable action responses of educational authorities, the following alternative futures can be envisioned:
Redefining shadows
Fundamentally, shadows must be reconceptualized. Instead of defining it according to its imitative moment alongside state institutions, its revolutionary value must be highlighted through the concept of the Jungian shadow. "The shadow is a Jungian concept used to describe the parts of the unconscious mind that are made up of all the undesirable aspects of our psyche that we have unconsciously rejected, disowned, repressed or denied. It is our dark side, comprised of everything within us that we don’t want to face. Yet, it is not evil or bad – it is merely the sum of those parts of us that are incompatible with who we think we are.6
Practical examples of Jung's shadow concept in psychology are the unconscious aspects of ourselves which our ego has repressed. It could be dark: our hidden fears, shames, and wounds; or gold: our hidden talents and creative power.
Reconceptualizing the concept of non-state actors according to the Jungian concept of "shadow" would still mean that it is "one" with the state institutions. It is not separate from the collective education system; however, it clarifies that it is not a mere supplement that must be relegated to an inferior role. Like in psychology, we cannot repress and totally disown the shadow. It must be integrated in the structure, because it can illuminate the full potential of our education system. As Carl Jung said, "everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual's conscious life, the blacker and darker it is. If an inferiority is conscious, one always has a chance to correct it.7"
State and non-state institutions do not oppose but complement each other. It is incumbent upon educational authorities to harmonize it like the duality of yin and yang: the differences must be transcended to see how all experiences can be unified for the true essence of education that is rooted in love of learning. This thought paper is grounded on integration, not on delineation. Closing shadow institutions forcefully would also contribute to the collapse of State institutions, because they are essentially one and the same. They are both representations of the global education system in two bodies. Distrust in the system of the former would also contribute to hatred in the latter; any shortcomings on the part of one also influences the other. Educational authorities cannot just translate the dissatisfaction on State schools into obliterating them out of sight; likewise, opposing views against non-State schools cannot just be used to repress alternative means of learning.
Einstein is often quoted that if he could save the world in an hour, only five minutes will be devoted in finding the solution; he would logically spend the remaining fifty-five minutes to define the problem. In addressing this issue on education, it is of paramount importance to address the real issue.
The continuous flourishing of non-state institutions is foreshadowing the imminent need to remodel the current schooling model according to the demands of the postmodern digital age. When we embrace these "shadows," our global education system can be truly revolutionized.
Systems Thinking
Systems Thinking must be applied. It is a "fundamental perspective" in Futures Studies, and some even claim that "it is the paradigm of foresight8."
Normally, in analyzing systems, the causes are attributed to:
However, in Systems Thinking, "a system's behavior is a function of its structure." Changing the people and/or blaming external factors does not work. The issue on equitable and inclusive education goes beyond the dichotomy of state and non-state institutions. The problem cannot just be attributed to the stakeholders' decisions, or to the political and economic environment. The behavior of the current education system is a function of the relation and interaction of its parts – its structure. Fundamentally, it is a design flaw.
We are being brought back to the basics: What is education here for? Is it structured according to the desired purpose? How does the current system's parts interact with each other according to fixed rules?
The Ideal Education: Learning to Become with the World
Education and media
An integral perspective in systems thinking cannot offer a single explanation for large-scale social change. There are no future facts, but only logical assumptions based on the theoretical telescope that we are using. In this paper that explores a radical change scenario, the theory is not endogenous; it is environmental. Change does not just arise from the society itself; the environment has an equal role to play.
The reconceptualization of education from public to private to common good is not just a change that the society willed, but also a condition required by the postmodern environment. The structure is emerging from the evolution of communication tools and technologies.
Learning is inseparable from media.
Media Studies is a general meditation on conditions9. "We are conditioned by conditions we condition. We, the created creators, shape tools that shape us. We live by our crafts and conditions." In this sense, media is not confined to the definition of being storyteller institutions (press, radio, and TV) and biased business-oriented communities (the advertisers, PR professionals, and entertainment executives). When media (medium in singular) is defined by its essence in the ablative sense, it is simply but powerfully a means, an intermediary. It is viewed as that something making another possible.
Education and media are both infrastructures of being that are tied to "the habitats and materials through which we act and are." Even before formal schooling was invented, "states have always, in some sense, been information states." The old media of clocks, calendars, compasses, maps, stones, and papyrus scrolls are used to leverage power; existence is justified through the manipulation of time and space: communication is made durable through the extension of a society's influence beyond the current moment, and for as far as the eyes can see.
Public education emerged from the medium of the steam engine. The Industrial Revolution did not only revolutionize the textile, transportation, energy, and agricultural industries; it required a formal schooling system that can mobilize the workforce in an industrializing economy, and to increase societal efficiency with active public participation and developed national identity. The structure had to meet the assembly line principles of conformity, accuracy, and standardization: schools must educate in batches according to age groups, and academic subjects were meticulously organized according to specializations.
"The Industrial Revolution turned the timetable and the assembly line into a template for almost all human activities. Shortly after, factories imposed their time frames on human behavior. Schools adopted precise timetables, followed by hospitals, government offices, and grocery stores. Even in places devoid of assembly lines and machines, the timetable became king10." Everything has been centered on mass production and standardization according to the demands of the factory production. Like the assembly line, workers and students must worship precision and uniformity.
Pedagogy, curriculum, and school regulations continuously evolve according to the invention of new tools and technologies. Media are environmental; it is not separate from nature in the same way that schools are.
Non-state schools and new media
"The medium is the message," Marshall McLuhan argues. The influence of communication tools and technologies is not mainly found on the content that it carries; it lies on the infrastructure itself. The invention of the steam engine has shown how the design of each medium arranges societies in a particular distinct way. "Environments are not just containers, but are processes that change the content totally11."
When the printing press was invented, it is not only the mode of learning that changed but also language formality and author-audience relations. On the other hand, the birth of mass media – radio, TV, and film – recovered verbal and pictorial culture that aids in audiovisual learning. "The new media are not just mechanical gimmicks for creating worlds of illusion, but new languages with new and unique powers of expression12."
Non-state schools are like new media. The education system is not at fault for the increase in alternative means of learning. It is a call for evolution. What pleases teaches more effectively.
The field of education must glean from media philosophies. Schools will not die; it will just be reinvented in the same way that older forms of media – from the ancient clocks, calendar, and maps to the modern radio, print, and TV – continuously shape and merge itself into new forms. In fact, all of it can now be found on the Internet. The historical pattern can be likened to James Joyce's Finnegans Wake where the last sentence returns to complete the first sentence of the book as an invitation to begin again. "It like Giambattista Vico's concept of 'ricorso' which is not simply a return but always a new return, a new retelling. There is no sense of a return to an origin, nor of the circle but of the spiral of time where there is no beginning or end13."
As a Māori proverb also says, "we would walk backwards into the future with our eyes fixed on our past."
Classroom without walls
Like the Internet, the concerns of postmodern students are transcending time and space as classrooms shatter its walls. Real education is happening through and in the media. The 2022 GEM Report is in the right direction: the consequences of ignoring the curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, and other teaching tools are just as serious as ignoring the institutional nature of the schools.
In the postmodern era where everything is volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous, accuracy is becoming elusive. According to Ravetz, the celebrated British philosopher of science, and the Argentinean mathematician Funtowicz, "whenever there is a policy issue involving science, we discover that facts are uncertain, complexity is the norm, values are in dispute, stakes are high, decisions are urgent, and there is a real danger of man-made risks running out of control14." Knowledge and wisdom are being redefined. The futurist, Alvin Toffler, famously claimed that "the illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." Nevertheless, the current education model remains blind: it still follows the principles of conformity, accuracy, and precision. Education authorities are only touching the tip of the iceberg. The root cause of the unfair and non-equitable access to education is neither the internal system (e.g. teachers, curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment) nor the external actors (e.g. for-profit corporations, other shadows, and the current political and economic environment); it lies on organization¸ relation, and interaction of both the internal and external interconnected factors. The overall infrastructural nature of education must be revolutionized, not just analyzed in the institutional level. Otherwise, "much of what kids learn today will likely be irrelevant by 205015."
To move forward, there is a need to design backward16. With rapid change and uncertain futures, backcasting is an empowering tool. It is the "act of imagining a preferred future, then stepping back towards the present, probing at each step what has to happen to enable it to come. This is anchored in an aspirational future state rather than being constrained by the limitations of the current one17."
The State can formally enact the collective goals whereas the schools have a duty of implementing it according to students' personal preferences. The mode of learning is not a one-size-fits-all, but the end is the same.
The visionary declarations of UNESCO for education by 205018 is the best example. It aligns to the reconceptualization made in this paper: to education as a common good; to shadows as means to illuminate the full potential of the education system; to non-state schools as new media; and to equitability and inclusivity as tied to the future survival of all. UNESCO calls for:
The goal is to align the private motivation of human dignity with the common desire for planetary survival. The limitless growth espoused by industrialization and capitalism overuses natural resources to the detriment of everyone. There is a pressing call to model the education system that practically serves the world we are living in, not just the economic system that we invented. Cosmopolitics is envisioned as a practice of living and dying together on a damaged planet.
- More-than-human relations
There are "technologies that distracts us, divides us, and downgrades our collective ability to solve problems19. Nonetheless, there is a need to "become" with the new technologies. If we revolutionize the current education system to naturally foster digital media literacy, the values of attention, shared understanding, and collaboration can be fostered. Artificial Intelligence can even be leveraged to improve the education system.
- Learning with others in our common worlds
Multiple perspectives are considered through a more-than-human collective recuperative ethics. "Humility, modesty, and accountability are indispensable virtues, essential requirements of living with uncertainty and complexity20." Humans do not exist outside nature and are not separate from the world. We do not stand at the apex of creation; we are, in fact, stewards. Education must embody the constant process of becoming. Students must learn how to co-create and co-exist with current and emerging technologies.
A science fiction story, Twin Sparrows21, explores this scenario of "learning to become with the world." With the development of AI in the years to come, it is not enough to use the new communication tools and technologies in teaching; there is a need to remodel according to its language. AI companions can be adapted for a personalized education system that can meet various student personalities.
AI technologies are not better than humans; in fact, AI can stand for Amplified "I" (singular first-person pronoun in the subjective case). It is a fundamental shift in our understanding of humanity that is not separate from our external reality: a shift from "ego" to "eco22."
In analyzing and remodeling the structure of education, it is worthy to ponder on the difference of an Action of Revolt and Creative Revolution23. The former is just a mutiny that craves for mere development. It is calling for a better treatment inside the current prison. The latter is an idealistic revolt that craves for a new system. It is breaking out of the current prison.
Shadows will illuminate who shall students truly need to "become" in the postmodern era.
References
UNESCO (2015). Rethinking Education: Towards a Global Common Good? Paris, France. Retrieved from https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000232555_eng
Facer, K. (2021). It's Not (Just) About Jobs: Education for Economic Wellbeing. UNESCO Education Research and Foresight: Working Papers. Retrieved from https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000376150.locale=en
UNESCO (2021). Global Education Monitoring Report 2021/2: Non-state actors in education: Who chooses? Who loses? Paris, France. Retrieved from https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379875.locale=en
Bray, M. (2009). Confronting the Shadow Education System: What Government Policies for What Private Tutoring? Paris, France. International Institute for Educational Planning, UNESCO. Retrieved from https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000185106/PDF/185106eng;%20por.pdf.multi
This is a Futures Studies tool that complements the Futures triangle of Sohail Inayatullah; it is effective for realizing alternative futures with scenario planning.
Morley, C. (2013). Dreams of Awakening. London: Hay House UK Ltd.
Jung, C. (1958). Psychology and Religion: West and East. New York: Pantheon Books, Inc.
Bishop, P. & Hines, A. (2012). Teaching about the Future. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Peters, J. (2015). The Marvelous Clouds: Toward a Philosophy of Elemental Media. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Harari, Y. (2014). Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. London: Harvill Secker.
McLuhan, M. (1997). Address at Vision 65. In Mcluhan, E. & Zingrone, F. (eds.) Essential McLuhan. New York: Routledge.
McLuhan, M. (1957). Classroom without walls. In Carpenter E. & McLuhan, M. (eds.) Explorations in Communication. Boston: Beacon Press.
Marchessault, J. (2005). Marshall McLuhan. London: Sage Publications Ltd.
As mentioned in Sardar, Z. (2010). Welcome to postnormal times. Futures, 42 (5). 435-444.
Harari, Y. (2018). 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. New York: Spiegel & Grau.
McTighe. J. & Wiggins, G. (2011). The Understanding by Design Guide to Creating High-Quality Units. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
As explained by Lisa Kay Solomon in her Leading Like a Futurist online course: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/leading-like-a-futurist
Common Worlds Research Collective (2020). Learning to Become with the World: Education for Future Survival. UNESCO Education Research and Foresight: Working Papers. Retrieved from https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000374923.locale=en.
From the Foundations of Humane Technology online course of the Center for Humane Technology: https://www.humanetech.com/course
Sardar, Z. (2010). Welcome to postnormal times. Futures, 42 (5). 435-444.
Lee, K. & Quifan, C. (2021). AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future. New York: Currency.
As mentioned by Peachie Dioquino-Valera in a conversation with the Global Foresight Advisory Council: https://thefuturesschool.com/2021/10/conversation-with-peachie-dioquino-valera/
Krishnamurti, J. (1989). The Attentive Mind. In D. Rajagopal (ed.) Think on these Things. San Francisco: HarperOne.
