Envisioning an alive education for an alive future
Do you sense that the current education model is not working and are looking for ways to imagine a new one? Start here.
In the wake of global vulnerabilities of climate change, financial instability, geopolitical tensions, and existential risks, traditional educational models seem increasingly out of step with the realities of our global society. While existing educational systems, characterized by standardized testing, classroom settings, and regulated curricula have served some purpose in the past, there is a growing recognition of its shortcomings in preparing students for an alive future.
Rather than resigning to a grim outlook, Cary Reid (a Jamaican educator who has spent the last decade creating alternative systems for schools) and I, pooled in our expertise in international education, systems thinking, and futures thinking to design a process to envision an alive education for an alive future.
Our context is international high schools aspiring to educate the youth for a better world. Recognizing that each community has its unique needs and potentials, instead of prescribing a one-size-fits-all solution, we focus on sharing a process for imagineering that learning organizations can adapt to develop their own vision of what education should look like in their context.
We write this now because we believe we are at an inflection point. The past decade has not only fostered discussions around change but has also witnessed the actualization of innovative educational pathways. The School of Humanity, Avenues-The World School, The Green School, THINK Global School, and Amala Education are all successful examples of innovative educational practices responding to needs of the time in very different contexts. Shifts in regulatory frameworks and increasing acceptance of alternative credentials — like Mastery Transcript Consortium and accrediation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges — support these innovations. These changes suggest a readiness for systemic change and signal that now, more than ever, the time is ripe for us to propel these movements forward.
So how do we go about imagining an alive education for an alive future? In this article, we outline three activities that can guide you through the process of envisioning an alive education system for an alive future.
- Identify current and future trends affecting your community of learners
- Dream up new educational landscapes
- Create your model of an alive education for an alive future
Activity 1: Identify current and future trends affecting your community of learners
Recommended time: 3–8 hours
The goal of this activity is to understand what you are sensing and articulate the specific challenges and opportunities that currently exist within your educational community. This involves answering three questions:
- Who are your community of learners?
- What is your current and emerging social, economic, political, and technological context?
- What education-specific implications arise out of this context?
For this activity you will need large sheets of paper, markers, and post-it notes. If you are doing this activity online, Miro is a great collaborative working tool to create a shared spaced.
At the end of this activity, you should be able to articulate what you have been sensing with words. Now let that sit with you for a day or a week before proceeding with the next activity.
Activity 2: Dream up new educational landscapes
Recommended time: 3–8 hours
In this vision boarding exercise, we dream — a powerful tool for shaping the future of education. This activity is designed to unlock the collective imagination of your community of stakeholders to build a shared dream. Question and expand who you would want in the room for an inclusive dream.
Setup and Sensory Engagement
Arrange your space to invoke all your senses:
- Sight: use images and video clips that capture emotions that words cannot. Replace flip chart paper with large sheets of plain paper for a boundless canvas.
- Touch: use tactile elements that invite hands-on interaction. Keep magazines, post-it notes, markers, etc. on hand
- Taste: use snacks to keep the energy high and stimulate the palate.
- Smell: use subtle aromas to invigorate the senses and enhance memory.
- Proprioception: use an organic, fluid setup that encourages movement and interaction over traditional arrangements like rows and circles
Engage with Key Questions:
Warm up your creativity with these questions.
- Who will live this dream?
- What do you want more of?
- What do you want less of?
- What do you not want to lose?
- What does a day in the life of a student look like?
- What does a day in the life of a teacher look like?
- Are there limits?
To guide further thinking on program design, consider the following learning design framework:
- Purpose: Why do they learn?
- Power: Who decides why, what, and how?
- Values: What drives community behaviours and interactions?
- Beliefs: What are our beliefs around how students learn best?
- Knowledge Areas: What knowledge areas will they explore?
- Skills and Attitudes: What skills and attitudes will they develop?
- Methods: How will they learn?
- Learning Environments: In what environments will they learn?
- Assessment: How will they prove their learning?
- Support: Who do they need on their journey?
You can also designate multiple creative zones, encouraging participants to meander and contribute to different vision landscapes. If you are doing this activity online, you can once again use Miro to combine images, sounds, and text, creating a digital collage that represents the multi-dimensionality of your dream.
At the end of this activity, you should be able to hold an image(s) of a learning community that feels alive to you and gives you hope and trust in the future. Spend time over the next week thinking about your dream and start sharing it with more people to hear about what they think.
Activity 3: Create your model of an alive education for an alive future
Recommended time: 3–8 hours
The goal of this final activity is to integrate the insights gathered about current and future trends from Activity 1 and the visions from Activity 2 to start crafting an education model that is achievable in your context.
For this activity you will once again need large sheets of paper, markers, and post-it notes or Miro.
At the heart of this illustrative model is education’s role in empowering individuals and communities to effect personal, social, and systemic change. It prioritizes high community participation in shaping the why, what, and how of learning; less standardization of curricula and assessments; and leveraging AI to make things that were holding the dream back possible. This goes hand in hand with a growth in recognition of alternative credentials by universities, workplaces, and community spaces.
What’s Next
At the end of this process, you should now feel ready to develop your education model (which could look very different from our example above) into a strategic plan, starting with these key questions:
- Describe your long-term objectives
- Where are you now?
- What would need to happen to bridge the gap to get to your chosen objectives?
Cary and I are committed to building momentum through generating and sharing different visions for the future of education. We would love to hear from you if you would like to experiment with the suggested process. Do reach out and have a look at our Miro board if you need a starting point.
Bibliography
Jain, Manish, You don’t want a “deadlihood” — you want an “alivelihood”. In Gandhi’s spirit of swaraj, here’s a new approach to education and work from India, The Alternative, Accessed Oct 1, 2023, https://www.thealternative.org.uk/dailyalternative/2023/6/26/next-week-alivehoods
Learning for Sustainability, Thinking our way into the future — scenarios and visioning, Accessed Oct 1, 2023, https://learningforsustainability.net/scenarios/
H3Uni, Three Horizons Model, Accessed Oct 1, 2023, https://www.h3uni.org/tutorial/three-horizons/
Noel, Lesley-Ann, The Conversation Factory, Decolonizing Design Thinking, Accessed Oct 1, 2023, https://theconversationfactory.com/podcast/decolonizing-design-thinking-with-dr-lesley-ann-noel
Scearce, Diana et al., What If, The Art of Scenario Thinking for Nonprofits, Accessed Oct 1, 2023, https://www.issuelab.org/resources/11620/11620.pdf
