On the politics and ambition of the ‘turn’: unpacking the relations between Future 1 and Future 3

Abstract

This paper suggests that advocates of the ‘knowledge turn’ have been united in their opposition to Young and Muller’s (2010) Future 2, but that this ‘union’ has masked very different views of the relations between Young and Muller’s Future 1 and Future 3. Whereas some who subscribe to the ‘turn’ see a ‘weak boundary’ between Futures 1 and 3 (and therefore consider them similar), others construe these Futures as very different and strongly bounded. We argue that these positions are often underpinned by irreconcilable political persuasions and conceptions of education, society and the curriculum. In order to illustrate the argument, we discuss the political project of the UK-based Academy of Ideas, many of whose members have been involved in advocating implicitly or explicitly for a weak boundary between Futures 1 and 3. This position is then contrasted with those in the UK who are more strongly committed to exploring a distinctive Future 3, and the situation in South Africa, where the tensions between different educational Futures are acutely visible due to the social, cultural and political context and academic and policy debates around the curriculum. We conclude with some implications of our arguments for the Future 3 principles of disciplinarity and sociality.

Keywords:

• Social realism
• educational futures
• curriculum
• knowledge

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

John Morgan

John Morgan is Professor of Education at the University of Auckland. His research interests are in geographical education, the politics of the school curriculum and the cultural politics of schooling.

Jim Hordern

Jim Hordern is Associate Professor at Bath Spa University. His work focuses on the conceptualisation of educational knowledge, practice and systems. Projects have focused on professional, vocational, higher and teacher education. His background includes teaching in adult, further and higher education in the U.K. and abroad, professional development, and policy and project work.

Ursula Hoadley

Ursula Hoadley is an associate professor working in the School of Education at the University of Cape Town. Her work focuses on pedagogy, curriculum and school organisation at the primary level, and she has published extensively both locally and internationally in these areas.