21st Century Skills in Education
The future of education is being pulled towards learning how to learn about the futures. In the postmodern era where situations are 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 control (Sardar, 2010)."
Knowledge and wisdom are being redefined. In fact, there is a prescient warning that the illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn (Toffler, 1970). The current era is often described as V.U.C.A: volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. Fast progress means constant change. Nevertheless, the current education model still follows the principles of conformity, accuracy, and precision. If the infrastructural nature of education will not be revolutionized, the lessons learned by students will be irrelevant by 2050 (Harari, 2018). There is a need to establish a learning-intensive society that has the capacity to think about the future.
Futures Literacy (FL) is about tapping into imagination to accept uncertainty, to befriend complexity, and to appreciate the value of novelty. There must be a discipline of anticipation that can respond to disruption with practical improvisation (Miller, 2018). Once foresight thinking is integrated in the personal level, there would be an inner reflective realization that "the future" is not yet established. There are "futures." Education must be made every day throughout a lifetime: even if there is uncertainty on what will exactly happen, there must still be awareness on what is to come. Bishop and Hines (2012) are teaching the future through the discipline of Futures Studies (FS) in as much as the past is studied through History and the present through Journalism. An international non-profit organization, Teach the Future, has been established to mobilize educators on integrating futures-thinking life skills in the classrooms, not just in universities.
Moreover, in an essay with the same title of this article, Marshall McLuhan (1957) claimed that real education is taking place through the media. The press, radio, film, and TV are not different to a book in educating the students. Education is also in entertainment, and the proper usage of media technologies must also be instructed. If a film can influence our understanding of history, then it must be used to teach history. In the current era, as the Internet and AI technologies transcend time and space, how can it be leveraged for lifelong learning outside the classroom premises?
The future of education is not only being pulled towards learning how to learn about the futures. It also calls for transmogrifying all digital citizens into students of the media. Futures Literacy (FL) must work with Media and Information Literacy (MIL) to create a lifelong learning education system.
With every use of technology in the learning process, the academic community is obliged to ponder on its power. As it promises communication in any place, does it have an effect on the personal space? Does it invade individual privacy? As it allows ideas and stories to be etched throughout eternity, does it have an effect on the personal usage of time? Does it tickle attention to consume an overwhelming number of information?
The Finland Futures Research Center (FFRC) and the University of Geneva has developed a Futures Consciousness Test that uses a 20-item futures consciousness scale. As educators, it is necessary to be aware of the five dimensions of futures consciousness: firstly, Time Perspective, which is the understanding of the concept of passing time and being aware of tomorrow; secondly, Agency Beliefs, which is a sense of being able to influence how the future will unfold; thirdly, Openness to Alternatives, which is the capability of embracing and appreciating change and alternative ways; fourthly, Systems Perception, which is the ability to look at problems and issues from a holistic point of view; and lastly, Concern for Others, which is the capacity for being concerned about and committing oneself to bettering not only one’s own future, but the future of others, of society, and even the future of generations yet (Ahvenharju, Minkkinen, & Lalot, 2018).
When long-term thinking is embraced, humans will move from being digitally distracted to having a legacy mindset (Krznaric, 2020). Passive and reactive response on the hijacking of attention by technology will be replaced with a proactive approach on the planetary future for posterity. Certainly, having futures consciousness and futures orientation do not limit lifelong learners into an egocentric form of legacy that only uses media for immediate dopamine hits.
Therefore, in analyzing and remodeling the structure of education, it is worthy to ponder on the difference of an Action of Revolt and Creative Revolution (Krishnamurti, 1989). 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.
The visionary declarations of UNESCO for education by 2050 is the best example. It calls for ecological consciousness in an education system that practically serves the world we are living in, not just the economic system that we invented; for more-than-human relations to naturally foster digital media literacy as we “become” with the new technologies; and for learning with others in our common worlds to highlight the values of humility, modesty, and accountability in a more-than-human collective recuperative ethics.
Like media, the concerns of lifelong learners would also transcend time and space as classrooms shatter its walls. Therefore, educators must focus on fostering the 4Cs of creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration through implementing more project-based learning and inquiry-based learning initiatives that could also develop futures-thinking skills.
We would walk backwards into the future with our eyes fixed on our past. – a Māori proverb
REFERENCES
Ahvenharju, S., Minkkinen, M. & Lalot, F. (2018). The Five Dimensions of Futures Consciousness. Futures, 104, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2018.06.010.
Bishop, P. & Hines, A. (2012). Teaching About the Future. United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan.
Common Worlds Research Collective (2020). Learning to Become with the World: Education for Future Survival. In UNESCO Education Research and Foresight: Working Papers. Retrieved from https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000374923.locale=en.
Harari, Y. (2018). 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. New York: Spiegel & Grau.
King, K. & West, J. (2018). Futures Thinking Playbook. Retrieved from https://issuu.com/wtforesight/docs/futuresthinkingplaybook-final.
Krishnamurti, J. (1989). The Attentive Mind. In D. Rajagopal (ed.) Think on these Things. San Francisco: HarperOne.
Krznaric, R. (2020). The Good Ancestor: A Radical Prescription for Long-Term Thinking. New York: WH Allen.
McLuhan, M. (1957). Classroom without walls. In Carpenter E. & McLuhan, M. (eds.) Explorations in Communication. Boston: Beacon Press.
Miller, R. (Ed). (2018). Transforming the Future: Anticipation in the 21st Century. London: Routledge. Retrieved from https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000264644.
Sardar, Z. (2010). Welcome to postnormal times. Futures, 42 (5). 435-444.
Toffler, A. (1970). Future Shock. New York: Bantam Books, Inc.
Teach the Future. (n.d.). Retrieved November 19, 2022, from https://www.teachthefuture.org/.
