Evolution of education: From weak signals to rich imaginaries of educational futures

New thinking patterns and ways of knowing have emerged in the last century. All the major academic disciplines have been evolving new forms and processes. Mainstream education has remained trapped in a 19th century industrial mindset. Developmental psychologists have identified higher stages of postformal reasoning. Education must evolve to incorporate postformal reasoning and postmodern culture

Re-imagining the role and function of higher education for alternative futures through embracing global knowledge futures

Weak signals from the early twentieth century indicate the emergence of new ways of thinking and knowledge patterns, which will be key drivers of change in the next 100 years. Significant developments can be mapped in most, if not all, of the major academic disciplines. In parallel, there is an emerging movement to integrate knowledge, to move beyond the fragmentation of knowledge associated with disciplinary specialisation via inter-, multi-, and trans-disciplinary approaches. In the current dominant model of higher education, disciplinary and ideological siloism thwart appropriate knowledge transfer—thus limiting the larger project of knowledge coherence so necessary if we are to cope with the complexity we must expect of the next 100 years. I propose that higher education can best be re-imagined through deeply embracing new ways of thinking and new knowledge patterns

Postformal priorities for postnormal times - A rejoinder to Ziauddin Sardar

This essay is a postformal rejoinder to Ziauddin Sardar's Welcome to Postnormal Times. I have no quarrel with Sardar's conclusion that these times are postnormal, nor do I disagree with many of his observations, but our standpoints regarding implications are somewhat contradictory. Paradoxically, rather than jump into an old paradigm form of debate with Sardar's interpretations of postnormalcy, this rejoinder is a playful postformal response. I celebrate our complementary views as expressions of the complex truths of multiperspectivality. First I question the meaning of normal and postnormal in the context of such notions as "the pathology of normalcy". Secondly I begin to explore the postnormal circumstances from a postformal perspective. This involves discussion of notions of progress, development, evolution and co-evolution from different points of view as an opener to coming to terms with complexity. I then explore how concepts such as complexity and paradox can be understood as paths to wisdom; how active imagination can be engaged in the service of life; and how engaged imagination can unfold new normative narratives of alternative futures. Such imaginaries of hope are vital for the wellbeing of young people. The essay closes with a call to embrace the richness of complexity and play with-rather than fear-the paradox of planetary pluralism

Spiritual epistemologies and integral cosmologies: transforming thinking and culture

Integrative Learning and Action is a call to wholeness by poets, organizational theorists, scientists, lawyers, educators, philosophers, administrators, and contemplatives. In diverse ways the essays speak to an emerging desire for a different world - for different ways of learning, knowing, and being that draw upon the full spectrum of our cognitive, aesthetic, emotional, spiritual, and kinesthetic intelligences in order to create a wiser, more sustainable, and collaborative global society. The essays challenge us to chart a new integrative course for the future, to expand our thinking, and to re-enlist our hearts in the life-long journey of learning and living, and will be valuable to all who are engaged in the transformation occurring in education and the workplace

We will shine: transparent futures of consciousness

This CD-ROM provides an advanced, state-of-the-art, international overview of, and springboard into, futures studies, and applied foresight. It is a resource for all who seek to understand and deal with a global outlook of unprecedented complexity and risk at every level

Globally scanning for "mega-trends of the mind": Potential futures of futures thinking

This paper focuses on emergent signs of evolutionary change in human thinking that run parallel with many of the exponential changes manifesting in the external world. Weak signals are identified from the early 20th century indicating the emergence of new knowledge patterns. These signals have strengthened in the last 40 years. The paper first identifies new ways of thinking within several disciplines such as science, philosophy, religion and education. New knowledge patterns are then identified in discourses that traverse disciplinary boundaries through transdisciplinary approaches such as futures studies and planetary/global studies. The paper then discusses evolution of consciousness, identifying research that theorises new ways of thinking as being related to individual psychological development and/or socio-cultural evolution. Finally, evolutionary concepts are discussed that attempt to meta-cohere the new knowledge patterns via the terms postformal, integral and planetary. Notably, academic research on “futures of thinking,” “evolution of consciousness” and/or “global mindset change” has been, until now, largely ignored by mainstream academic discourse on evolution, consciousness and futures studies

The metaphors of globalisation: a multi-layered analysis of global youth culture

This book is divided into five parts. Part I introduces the causal layered analysis methodology - its historical and conceptual context as well as research and workshop case studies. Part II presents essays that compare CLA to other methods, as well as essays that use and locate layered analysis generally; to some extent these predate CLA. The third part - and the largest section of the book - consists of case studies applying CLA in a wide range of areas, including, for example, genetic engineering, poverty, racism, globalisation, education, aviation, the global media, Japan, cities, and theories of intelligence. Part IV presents essays which constitute CLA as an evolving methodology. This section also includes a bibliographic narrative and a response to critics of CLA. The final part of the book includes charts, tables, and slides

Giving hope back to our young people: creating a new spiritual mythology for Western culture

There is extensive psychological literature which has linked hopelessness with depression and suicide risk for decades. Although there is a strong research and clinical base for targeting depression, there is a gap in the psychological literature when it comes to targeting hopelessness, specifically. In the absence of such a body of psychological literature, this paper draws on the research from the Futures Studies field which also records a rise in hopelessness, negativity and fear of the future among young people in the West. These phenomena (hopelessness, depression and suicide) will be analysed using Causal Layered Analysis, a methodology from the Futures Studies field, pointing to the long-term psycho-social impact on youth of the materialistic worldview that underpins Western culture. The paper will also explore the question: "how can hope for the future be promoted?" by looking beyond the dominance of materialism to spiritually inspired worldviews and the new metaphors and stories that arise from them

An other view of integral futures: de/reconstructing the IF brand

This paper points to some limitations of the narrow version of integral futures (IF) as represented in the recent special issue of Futures (2008, vol. 40, issue 2). I also propose several ways that the IF brand could be refreshed through a broader and deeper approach to integral futures by way of a scholarly engagement with other kindred discourses. The main focus of this paper is to open out beyond the 'myth-of-the-given' in relation to the notion of integral and in this way broaden and deepen possibilities for integral futures

The evolution of futures in school education

School education seems to be mostly stuck in an outdated industrial era worldview, unable to sufficiently address the significance and increasing rapidity of changes to humanity that are upon us. An integrated forward-looking view should, now more than ever, be of central importance in how we educate. Yet there is little sign that - unlike corporations - school systems are recognising the true value of futures studies. A brief history of futures in school education shows the significant role played by the World Futures Studies Federation in its evolution to date. The article also introduces integral analysis as a way of opening up new possibilities to help school education develop due foresight and to more fully realise its potential as a prime facilitator in individual and cultural evolution