Educating for Tomorrow: Considering Theories for Learning Futures: Editorial Introduction

Abstract

Education is a forward looking enterprise. It is concerned with ongoing gain and future benefit. Whether focused on fundamental skills such as the literacy and numeracy that many of us learned in school or the more abstract skills gained in higher education settings or the heuristic knowledge developed through problem solving and practice or the very particular skills required for professional activity, education seeks to provide advantage to learners long after the educative activity has ceased.The difficulty with such futures-oriented activity is that it must try to predict the future and the future needs of its participants in order to retain its currency. If education is to remain beneficial to learners, it must prepare them for the world not only of today but also of tomorrow. However, this problem is not straightforward. Now, more than ever before, rapid and continuous change has made the future difficult to predict. The stability of lifelong employment, career, family and other social institutions continues to erode. Professional activity demands continual upskilling to remain abreast of changes. These changes have highlighted the need for a shift away from 'education for life' towards ongoing learning throughout and across the lifespan.This special theme issue of the International Journal of Pedagogies and Learning seeks to engage with the challenge of futures-oriented education in the context of lifelong learning. The issue includes six articles which examine and respond to key questions posed by that challenge. These questions reference three main influences on the emerging discourse of Learning Futures: globalisation and its effects on the needs of learners in contemporary societies; the emergent theory base of lifelong learning; and the global educational imperatives of inclusivity, sustainability and literacies as identified by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation. Five of the articles in this issue were produced by members of the postgraduate course Theories for Learning Futures delivered by the Faculty of Education at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia; the sixth article was written by the guest editor who was the coordinator of that course. In each case, the authors have identified, explored or responded to the key issues of Learning Futures in their particular professional contexts in order to provide a situated engagement with the challenge of educating for tomorrow. The issue also includes a special invited respondent's contribution from Professor Miriam Zukas of the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom on the topic of pedagogic learning as an opportunity for ongoing learning and professional development in response to Learning Futures.The first article, by Benjamin A. Kehrwald of the University of Southern Queensland, Australia, examines the problem of educating educators to prepare them for their dual roles as lifelong learners and proponents of lifelong learning in futures-oriented education. The article focuses on creating opportunities for professional development for educators with the problem of the design, development and implementation of a postgraduate course in education on the topic of Learning Futures. The article identifies the theory which underpins Learning Futures and includes the result of a heuristic evaluation of the course which highlights areas for further development of the course as a response to the challenge of Learning Futures.The second article, by Andrew MacLean, explores the concept of active citizenship. The article explicates the process of identifying and evaluating active citizenship within the curriculum and pedagogy at Old Yarranlea State School, a one-teacher school in Queensland, Australia. MacLean presents a framework for whole school revitalisation which embraces futures-oriented reform and emphasises the importance of educating for tomorrow.In the third article, by Bronwyn Bethel, the focus of the issue shifts to the imperative for inclusive education and the case of inclusive practices in the Remote Area Teacher Education Program (RATEP) in North Queensland, Australia. …